Resources

This GRETA policy brief seeks to guide local policymakers in creating tailored energy information that addresses individuals’ and communities’ unique needs regarding energy transition actions. Well-designed energy information can shape individual and community perspectives, fostering a greater willingness to embrace energy-saving practices and support policies for sustainable energy use.

In this policy brief, GRETA introduces eight different data-based energy personas and highlights corresponding design principles for each of them. This information seeks to encourage policymakers to offer citizens audience-specific, visualized energy information that empowers diverse groups of people to become more engaged in sustainable energy practices.

Energy citizenship can manifest in various settings, whether on an individual or communal basis, spanning local, regional, or national levels, and extending to virtual platforms and translocal networks. GRETA has identified different types of proximity as drivers of green energy transition actions. Proximity is understood as a means to engage in meaningful and fruitful relationships and as a condition for mutual learning and knowledge exchange. It can take many different forms: spacial, social, policy, technological or economical.

To effectively facilitate the emergence and development of energy citizenship policymakers need to consider different types of proximity as drivers of green energy transition actions. In this policy brief GRETA explains how policymakers can integrate different types of proximity into everyday policy frameworks.

This policy brief introduces Energy Citizenship Contracts (ECCs) as a policy tool for formalizing and governing mutual benefits, rights and duties among energy transition stakeholders. ECCs bring together relevant stakeholders for collaboration, knowledge exchange and collective commitment to, ultimately, contribute to a more sustainable and resilient future. This approach ensures that energy citizens have a robust and trustworthy foundation upon which to base their future actions.

The European Green Deal emphasizes an inclusive and just energy transition, recognizing the necessity of ensuring that no one is left behind in the shift towards a greener society for all. However, achieving this goal faces challenges due to a complex policy and actor landscape, which can hinder citizens’ engagement and involvement in the transformational process. This is particularly true for more vulnerable communities in European societies.

To strengthen public access and support for a just and sustainable energy transition GRETA recommends policymakers to establish local and regional “Integrated Energy Citizenship Hubs” for citizens seeking information and support related to energy transition actions.

To enhance the participation of active energy citizens in the energy transition, it is essential to recognize their knowledge and give them a (stronger) voice – not only within their communities but also as experts for regional, national, and EU policymaking. Acknowledging energy citizens’ contributions and their needs in active talks and discussions can enhance trust in policymakers. GRETA recommends the policy makers to:

1) Offer and actively participate in a variety of dialogue formats with diverse energy citizens to acknowledge citizens’ contributions to the energy transition regularly and allow for mutual learning between energy citizens and policymakers.

2) Establish funding programs for digital solutions and platforms that enhance knowledge exchange within digital energy communities.

This report details the process of creating eight energy citizen personas, each representing one of the clusters created by clustering the GRETA multinational survey data. The personas are mainly utilised in the creation of a set of design principles for creating interfaces to energy and energy-related information that reflect different energy citizenship needs.

This report details a set of workshop activities that can be used for co-designing Community Level Indicators (CLIs) within energy communities. CLIs mean the goals that a community collectively holds for decarbonisation and how to measure progress towards goals. Co-design of CLIs serves two purposes:
1) The process may empower communities to act as energy citizens
2) The outputs may be useful in creating Community Transition Pathways: a roadmap which defines the actions a community can take to achieve a transition towards greener energy within the energy system

The report discusses both online and face-to-face versions of activities that can be easily tailored to different contexts. The co-design process is based on analysis of literature on co-design methodologies and tools, existing schemes for defining CLIs and also general business key performance indicator methodologies.

GRETA emphasizes the need to enhance regulatory frameworks to ensure the meaningful inclusion of all individuals in the energy transition. While acknowledging the value of policies that enable citizen participation in formalized Citizen Energy Communities (CECs) or Renewable Energy Cooperatives (RECs), GRETA recognizes that energy citizenship encompasses a broader spectrum of activities.

To close the gap between already engaged citizens and those underrepresented in energy transition GRETA recommends
1) implementing policy incentives that acknowledge and compensate for time and financial commitment beyond formalized CECs and RECs and
2) establishing funding and training programs for energy intermediaries to support energy citizenship.

The Energy Citizenship Contracts (ECC) are voluntary agreements between different stakeholders aimed at addressing energy actions and promoting sustainable practices. They contain community-level goals, stakeholders, activities, resources designed to shift the community awareness level towards energy citizenship.

D5.4 is specifically dedicated to providing and illustrating ECCs Guidelines for implementation with relevant information on their purposes and on how to read and use them, while also explaining what benefits ECCs would carry. ECCs Guidelines intend to show the process of developing voluntary agreements in a fair and inclusive way by adopting a systemic and multiscale approach in different communities.