Background Limiting climate change is a key priority of European environmental policy. In France and across Europe, most climate-change actions are undertaken at city or regional level. However, local authorities at municipality or sub-regional levels - such as Départements in France or counties in the UK - can also play an important role. They can often bring added value from their specific quality of being large enough to produce real impacts, but small enough to directly link with the general public. Currently, there is a real need to improve knowledge and awareness of good practice in developing effective climate-change policies and plans at County level. Objectives The CLIMATE project aimed to develop and adopt a territorial climate action plan for the French department of Essonne, and to make Essonne a positive example for other intermediate public authorities on climate change planning. The general objective was to help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Essonne over the project lifetime, followed by a planned 25% reduction compared to 1990 levels by 2020. To achieve this, behaviour change was encouraged among local residents, companies, municipalities and social landlords, complemented by the introduction of carbon accounting into the County Council’s own budget. Results The CLIMATE project developed and demonstrated a range of tools for implementing a territorial climate action plan. This action plan focused mainly on eco-friendly business, sustainably-designed housing, transportation and energy. Most of the actions, which are encouraging behaviour change among stakeholders in a number of sectors, are continuing post-LIFE. A carbon accounting tool was developed by ADEME (France) and used to evaluate the carbon footprint and GHG emissions in the department of Essonne, at the start of the project and on an ongoing basis. Measurements of GHG emissions in Essonne made during the project, from 2008 and 2013, showed an overall stabilisation (9.29 teq [total tonnes equivalent] CO2/inhabitant in 2008 compared to 9.19 teq CO2/inhabitant in 2013), despite an increase in the population. The actions implemented by the project, which can be extended in the future, are expected to have a medium to long-term effect on reducing GHG emissions. Eco-friendly business activities were implemented within NOVA GREEN, a partnership created by Essonne County Council to stimulate cooperation between companies, chambers of commerce and research institutes. The project established a platform within this partnership to further support eco-friendly businesses, particularly by connecting SMEs with research laboratories. The aim of this action is also to create economic value and create job opportunities. The project constructed demonstration platforms (or show rooms) for new green technologies, especially concerning sustainable housing. The project created a resource centre for ecological construction materials and sustainable housing, called Matériauthèque, which is accessible to the general public. This included a series of scale models illustrating building materials and techniques, and is being developed further to offer advice to landlords and homeowners about building renovation. A virtual library was established for ecological materials and energy reduction in the building industry. The project developed a free software package to monitor and manage fluid consumption in buildings (water and energy use), and also produced a guide to sustainable social housing development in Essonne and a Charter for Sustainable Building and Subsidising. The ‘Showcase of Energy in Essonne’ platform, along with other exhibitions of social housing units, promoted best practice for energy use. These actions were aimed at improving building sustainability and reducing energy precariousness, so could have direct impacts on health and economic prospects of individuals concerned. The project developed the MobilEssonne platform to encourage the use of eco-friendly transportation solutions. This action included building a Mobility Centre web site, which included information on the use of alternatives to solo travel in individual cars (e.g. car sharing). MobilEssonne encourages people to reduce their GHG footprint by generating carbon footprint figures and costs for different transportation options, with potential benefits in terms of money saved and air quality. Essonne County Council is testing an innovative tool to assess the effectiveness of public action, using software developed during the CLIMATE project, which monitors GHG emissions and associated costs. The beneficiary also produced a methodological guide to sustainable town planning and development with respect to climate change. The project organised training courses for County council personnel, social landlords and social workers, and a range of awareness raising actions, particularly with the most vulnerable households and lenders in order to prevent energy precariousness. Middle school students also had the opportunity to discover good practices for energy saving. At the end of the project, the beneficiary organised an International conference to present its findings and exchange ideas, with a view to disseminating its methodology and tools to other European local authorities. Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).