Most of us need some support, encouragement, inspiration or more technical kind of assistance for leading 1.5-degree lifestyles. Getting involved in energy citizenship initiatives may give us exactly these sorts of help! And, there is a large diversity of them available around us as proven by the almost 600 cases mapped in Europe by researchers in the Horizon2020-supported EnergyPROSPECTS project.
In EnergyPROSPECTS, “energy citizenship (ENCI) refers to forms of civic involvement that pertain to the development of a more sustainable and democratic energy system. Beyond its manifest forms, ENCI also comprises various latent forms: it is an ideal that can be lived up to and realised to varying degrees, according to different framework conditions and states of empowerment.” As there is a huge variety of cases available that would fit this definition, and mapping them all would not have been possible. Thus, the mapping activity focused on cases that:
- are based in European countries (including EU, EEA and accession countries);
- are currently active or were concluded no sooner than 2015 when the Energy Union Strategy was published;
- are focused on direct energy production and/or consumption (e.g. in households, organizations, etc.), mobility (with a direct connection to energy issues), or have a more holistic overall focus on sustainable and just energy.
The database of energy citizenship initiatives as a searchable database is available online at https://data.energyprospects.eu/
To learn more about the methodology used for mapping, please refer to:
Selected country profile reports are also available, please check:
https://www.energyprospects.eu/results/country-profiles/
Finally, to read our first descriptive analysis of the data obtained through the mapping activity, check the EnergyPROSPECTS Factsheet Series:
https://www.energyprospects.eu/results/energy-citizenship-factsheets/
Edina Vadovics, GreenDependent Institute
Inspiration for this piece: https://www.energyprospects.eu/news/news/detailed-view/t/73782/
Source of pictures: https://www.energyprospects.eu/news/news/detailed-view/t/73782/ and https://www.facebook.com/kozossegienergia/