In 2019, four cities completed a joint research and education project to identify possible activities that municipalities can do within the field of domestic retrofit, to save carbon, improve comfort, health, citizen participation, community resilience and the local economy.
The municipality of Horst aan de Maas is situated in south-eastern Netherlands. In 2020 it adopted a new local sustainability policy with four main goals: Horst aan de Maas aims to be a fully climate neutral, climate proof, circular and nature-friendly town by 2050.
Rochdale is one of the 10 boroughs of the Greater Manchester city region. It is located to the north east of the region and has a population of approximately 218,000. It was one of the first industrial towns in the nineteenth century and was famous for textile manufacturing.
The Drechtsteden, with just short of 300,000 residents, is a small region of seven cooperating municipalities. In order to reduce households’ dependence on fossil gas, several municipalities have begun to construct heat networks using waste incineration, geothermal and aquathermal energy.
El 17 y 18 de septiembre de 2020, 12 ciudades españolas se reunieron para la primera edición de los Eventos Regionales mPower. El encuentro tenía como pregunta clave, cómo las ciudades pueden asumir un liderazgo más ambicioso en una transición energética democrática y justa. El evento, que estuvo marcado por experiencias compartidas de transición energética de seis de las ciudades participantes, supuso el inicio de un diálogo sobre cómo llevar la soberanía energética a una ciudad y su ciudadanía. ¿Qué se puede aprender cada ciudad, en el ámbito de la eficiencia energética en los edificios, la expansión de las energías renovables de propiedad pública y la participación ciudadana? En esta entrada compartimos algunas de las principales ideas del evento.
Located on the south bank of the river Tagus, opposite Lisbon, Almada City Council is one of 18 municipalities within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, with 180,000 permanent residents living in an area of 72 km2. Despite being mostly urban, Almada still manages to preserve 25% of its territory as a natural protected area of great richness and biodiversity. The city’s Atlantic beachfront extends for approximately 13 km and is a popular leisure destination, attracting an estimated 8 million visitors per year.
Three municipalities in southern Italy – Palma Campania, San Giuseppe Vesuviano and Striano – are proving that local authorities can engage citizens meaningfully and make them key actors in the transition to a low carbon economy.
On the 17th and 18th of September 2020, 12 Spanish cities* met for the first edition of the mPower Regional Events. The encounter was framed around the question of how cities can take more ambitious leadership in a democratic and just energy transition. Punctuated by more in-depth energy transition stories from six of the cities participating, the event formed the beginnings of a dialogue around how to bring energy sovereignty to a city and its local stakeholders. What could the city officers learn from and with each other in the areas of energy efficiency in buildings, expansion of publicly owned renewables and citizen participation? We share some of the main insights from the event in this blog.
What can European municipalities learn from each other to build a fair, clean and democratic energy transition? A lot, as our recent mPOWER event proved. On 29 and 30 November, 17 municipalities from all across Europe came together to celebrate the conclusion of the mPOWER Exchange programme. For more than a year, they had been learning together about how to take local leadership in creating a clean, fair and democratic energy system. This blog article recaps the highlights of the celebration event.
Community spirit has always been strong in Ireland; from pre-electrification days where farmers would help each other bring in the harvest to modern times where communities work together to create a cleaner, greener environment under such initiatives as ‘Tidy Towns’. Most recently, during Covid-19, this community spirit and willingness to help has drawn citizens together to support each other and protect the most vulnerable in society. Likewise, any energy transition and climate action must practise justice and inclusivity, to include everyone on this journey.
mPOWER is run by a consortium of Glasgow University (UK), Platform (UK), Energy Cities (EU-wide), IPE (Croatia), Transnational Institute (Netherlands), University of the Basque Country, and Carbon Coop (UK).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 785171. This project follows the EU data protection & security law, which is enforceable since 25 May 2018.
