Energy Citizenship in the Making
On March 5th, over 50 participants from the worlds of academia, policy and civil society gathered in Brussels to dive deep into energy citizenship at Energy Citizenship in the Making, the culminating policy event of the EC² project.
The event was organised in collaboration with three other Horizon projects: DIALOGUES, ENCLUDE and EnergyPROSPECTS. It celebrated the launch of a new joint policy brief drawing on the insights of all four projects on how energy citizenship can contribute to an inclusive, democratic, and sustainable Green Deal.
After an opening address laying out the key challenges observed by the projects when it comes to energy citizenship, and the pathways identified in order to advance, the day continued with an engaging array of discussions and activities designed to go deeper into the findings of the four projects. EC² representative Katja Corcoran from the University of Graz participated in a panel discussion highlighting the psychological aspects of energy citizenship as studied by the project, and other project participants offered a well-attended and highly engaging fishbowl discussion on our transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary understanding of energy citizenship.
Important emerging themes throughout the day's conversations were the need to focus on the social or community aspect of energy communities, particularly with regard to the challenge of inclusion, and the issue of trust and the role of trust-building agents in energy communities.
The event was also an opportunity to share our Energy Citizen Empowerment Kits, which provided a talking point as participants networked over lunch.
Between the projects, over 32,000 people across Europe were engaged in research, dialogues and co-creation around energy citizenship, and the event was a worthy reflection of the diversity of experiences and input this represented. We thank the representatives of DIALOGUES, ENCLUDE and EnergyPROSPECTS for their warm collaboration and all the participants for a highly engaging event.
