The Drechtsteden: moving away from fossil gas and involving residents in the process
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.
“Cuando algo es bueno, llévalo a tu propio ayuntamiento”.
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.
Almada: on the way to becoming a low-carbon role model
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.
Municipalities in southern Italy join forces with citizens to tackle climate change
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.
‘When something is good, take it to your own town hall!’
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.
The just transition as a beautiful challenge for municipalities
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.
Empowering local communities through partnership in Meath
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.
How Greater Manchester plans to reach carbon neutrality by 2038
The city-region of Greater Manchester is made up of ten local councils (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan) and the Mayor. Known as the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), it works together with other partners and local services on issues that affect everyone in the region, such as the environment, transport, regeneration, and attracting investment.
Tampere: engaging housing co-ops and residents in the drive towards carbon neutrality
Tampere has always pioneered sustainable technologies in Finland and is using this experience to drive forward an ambitious programme to become carbon-neutral by 2030. Due to the high levels of heating required in this cool region, the city engages a variety of stakeholders to renovate residential buildings to improve energy efficiency, among other actions. These measures are already bearing fruit and moving the city closer to achieving its goal.
Municipal actions for building energy democracy and energy sovereignty: Municipalist Manifesto from 2020 onwards
This blog introduces the 16 proposals put forward in the Municipalist Manifesto for building energy democracy and energy sovereignty locally, presented by the Catalan Network for Energy Sovereignty (Xse) and the Transnational Institute. The Municipalist Manifesto aims to be a tool that can be used as a guide by (municipalist) citizens platform, municipal councils and opposition parties, organisations and collectives, and any person who wishes to take action.