Our project partners TNO and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences joined up with Demir Enerji, another experienced Smart City partner (previously involved in SCC1 project Remourban and currently in MAKING-CITY), to write a paper on “Towards Energy Citizenship for a just and inclusive transition: lessons learned on collaborative approach of Positive Energy Districts from the EU Horizon2020 Smart Cities and Communities projects”. The paper was presented at the Sustainable Places conference on 30 October as part of the session “Local Energy Communities” and has been published as part of “Proceedings” on 6 January 2021.

Abstract:
To achieve the “well below 2 degrees” targets, a new ecosystem needs to be defined where citizens become more active, co-managing with relevant stakeholders, the government, and third parties. This means moving from the traditional concept of citizens-as-consumers towards energy citizenship. Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) will be the test-bed area where this transformation will take place through social, technological, and governance innovation. This paper focuses on benefits and barriers towards energy citizenships and gathers a diverse set of experiences for the definition of PEDs and Local Energy Markets from the Horizon2020 Smart Cities and Communities projects: MAKING-CITY, Pocityf, and ATELIER