Project description
Facilitating energy transition through active citizen participation
Innovation in green energy solutions and their usage play a key role in climate change mitigation. Energy citizenship refers to active public participation in clean energy transition, for example through behavioural change and renewable energy adoption, the collective effect of which could lead to significant carbon emissions’ reduction. Unfortunately, there are many barriers against energy citizenship. The EU-funded GRETA project will conduct research to develop models and frameworks that reveal factors impacting both individual and collective energy citizenship actions. The results will be utilised not only for developing energy citizenship contracts that support the transition goals within energy communities, but also for producing recommendations aimed at improving the policymaking process towards stimulating energy citizenship.
Objective
The GRETA project aims to improve understanding on the conditions and barriers for energy citizenship emergence. Energy citizenship has come to represent a form of active participation within energy systems that ultimately supports local and global decarbonisation goals. It can manifest in many different ways, such as individual homeowners choosing renewable energy solutions or electric vehicles, participation in energy communities, or advocating for climate change. But not everyone has the possibility to participate. This can be due to a range of factors, including being unaware of issues or their practical solutions; being excluded from debates and decision-making; being prevented from taking action due to lack of resource or lack of power. Through a multinational survey and six participatory case studies, GRETA will develop frameworks and models aimed to reveal what factors affect energy citizenship. These will be utilized within case studies to identify problems, frame solutions and reach consensus on roadmaps for change, formalized through Energy Citizenship Contracts. Findings throughout the project will be utilized to inform and encourage policymakers to advocate energy citizenship.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
53850 Lappeenranta
Finland