The Rio summit established the concept of local sustainable development plans known as AGENDA 21. In conjunction with EU Energy policy and legal initiatives these local energy communities can pioneer the application of integrated measures required to attain our global commitments and can become showcases for the dissemination of those concepts around Europe. Given their showcase character, sustainable energy communities must aim to reach objectives much beyond the global EU objectives.

Sustainable Energy Communities (SEC) are in brief defined as:

"Local communities in which politicians, planners, developers, market actors and citizens actively co-operate to demonstrate and develop high degrees of decentralized energy supply, favouring renewable energies as sources, together with a conscientious application of energy efficiency measures in all end-use sectors".

For more information on the SEC background, please refer to tools under "Context".