Civic energy – delivering community benefits of climate action: The COBEN project

McGovern, Gerard

doi:10.1080/13673882.2020.00001066

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…All interview-based surveys are unavoidably prone to a degree of subjectivity. In the present case this danger was alleviated somewhat by the facilitator function of all the interviewees: the featured civic energy initiatives have managed to enlist over 3000 civic stakeholders [64] whose narratives are re ected in the documented opinions. Also, the aim of this research was not to present a statistical representation of all active civic energy policy enablers and all current policy restrictions in Northern Europe but to indicate policy areas in need of attention if an energy system change from centralized, predominately fossil-based structures to decentralized, renewables-based regional structures is to be mastered.…”

Section: Representativeness Of the Interview Partnersmentioning

confidence: 86%

The Regional Case for Disruptive Energy Policy: A Civic Energy Perspective

McGovern¹

2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundThis paper deploys a regional actor perspective to detect policy enablers of and barriers to the uptake of civic energy. In common with other forms of regional, decentralized energy, the civic energy concept not only challenges historical energy business models but changes the energy agenda to prioritize community development and climate issues. Energy policy needs to react by shifting from purely market regulations to the promotion of shared community energy solutions. Both current energy structures and established policy priorities are unsuited to deliver on widely recognized energy transition and sustainable development goals. Switching from a centralized to a decentralized energy mode is viewed as a major re-structuring of a socio-technical regime. In a series of expert interviews, two disruptive policy approaches, creative destruction and experimentation, are analyzed as to whether they can contribute to overcoming path dependency and carbon lock-in.ResultsThe interviews conducted with local and regional energy facilitators in seven North European countries identified a range of active, predominantly municipal and regional policy enablers of civic energy. Motivation for specific civic energy initiatives was derived from the translation of global climate goals such as the Paris Agreement into more focused and therefore tangible local targets, which acted as direct policy enablers. At the same time critical inconsistencies and a lack of coherence were identified in several national and European energy policy mixes. Over and above dismantling existing administrative and legislative restrictions on civic energy uptake, experimentation is needed to develop new community partnerships that can host civic energy initiatives and mobilize untapped local energy resources.ConclusionsMastering the uncertainties of re-framing energy systems requires systematic experimentation and an extended mandate for local and regional authorities. Whereas the fossil versus renewable energy policy debate seems to have been won, the shift from centralized to decentralized systems threatens existing power structures and remains highly contentious.

show abstract

Section: Representativeness Of the Interview Partnersmentioning

confidence: 86%