By Rita Lopes
In the face of the unprecedented challenges of our time, it has been acknowledged that policies must no longer be designed in isolation. To create truly sustainable solutions, we must recognize that the people most affected by these issues are not passive recipients but active participants in shaping the future. Through their knowledge, experiences, and collective intelligence, policies could be crafted to be effective, just, equitable, and resilient.
This is particularly challenging in the energy transition, where solutions cannot be taken at all costs. The central transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda is to “leave no one behind.” This means that the social dimension must be truly embraced, integrating ecological concerns while respecting nature in this transition.
Notwithstanding the lack of know-how and capacity to engage citizens, particularly vulnerable groups like low-income families, migrants, women, younger generations, and the elderly, it is a considerable challenge. The needs of these groups are often the hardest to identify and address when designing energy transition policies, as they are difficult to reach and engage. Rural and small-to-medium-sized municipalities face these difficulties in more pronounced ways. In rural settings, these gaps can intensify even more, making inclusive participation in the transition particularly challenging.
The ENTRACK project, funded under the EU’s LIFE CET programme, started in late 2023 and aims to support local authorities in co-designing social energy plans. Eight small-to-medium-sized rural municipalities in the Mediterranean – located in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece – are at the heart of Europe’s energy transformation challenges. The project seeks to strengthen the energy policy capacities of local authorities, engaging them in co-designing effective social energy policies that prioritize climate resilience and the needs of vulnerable populations. Achieving climate neutrality requires more than just high-level policy directives; it requires active, bottom-up engagement from local actors, including citizens, municipalities, regional governments, and other stakeholders.
The co-design of social energy policies that reflect local realities and needs requires different engagement pathways, ensuring that diverse voices are heard and policies evolve in response to new insights and changing circumstances. In this work, we are fostering a governance model that promotes energy transition and empowers local communities to play an active role in shaping their energy futures. This is particularly important for rural municipalities, where energy poverty and social exclusion can be more pronounced, and energy policies must carefully consider local context and social equity. In that sense, we developed an approach to guide the collaborative process, ensuring that all relevant stakeholders, from local citizens to regional authorities, are effectively engaged in designing and implementing energy policies that are just, equitable, and aligned with broader climate goals.
Figure 1: Pathways of engagement process from the ENTRACK project in stakeholder matrix and pathways of engagement
We started by analysing the diversity of stakeholder groups and developing matrices of influence and interest, representing a blueprint for stakeholders’ inclusive and effective engagement in social energy policy co-design. This research proposes different flexible and tailored engagement pathways, establishing a collaborative framework for addressing the energy transition needs of various stakeholder groups and citizens. Exploratory interviews with key stakeholders aim to capture their insights on local energy challenges, priorities, and opportunities. These interviews were conducted in the four countries, identifying the main barriers to social energy planning in rural areas, including limited public participation, low engagement of public entities, and insufficient administrative capacity. Additionally, migrant social exclusion and lack of funding are major problems in rural communities. To address major issues, interviewed stakeholders highlighted the need for capacity building of local and regional authorities, establishing support structures to enhance citizen engagement and the importance of collaboration. To follow up on these needs, municipality-region partnerships focusing on the co-design process are being created, as well as communities of practices to share learning and align policy initiatives.
To collect citizens’ perceptions, needs, and priorities, we created a group of volunteers called “climate explorers” who were responsible for gathering insights directly from communities benefiting from the proximity. Different insights can be exported from this work. Some highlights include differences in how energy savings are perceived across various age groups, with older individuals often prioritizing economic benefits over environmental ones; the lack of accessible information and also the importance of community-specific solutions which point out the often inadequate support from local institutions, being essential to design policies that foster greater community involvement and facilitate knowledge and resource sharing. From the expert’s side, this research proposes a close interaction with sister projects and the advisory board; by engaging with these stakeholders, the research can benefit from diverse expertise, gain valuable insights, and support the refinement of its approach.
As a starting point for this work, the European, national and local landscapes of social and energy-related plans were mapped. The Taxonomy of Social Energy Plans, Strategies, and Policies from the EU Level Down to the Municipal Level detailed the social energy policies across various governance levels, revealing a dominant top-down approach in policy implementation advocating for greater local involvement in shaping national and EU strategies.
This work examines the interplay between policies to pinpoint direct interactions and potential overlaps that may lead to inefficiencies. It provides a structured overview of the multi-level governance of social energy policies. By clarifying the complex policy landscapes, we get a better understanding of the hierarchy and scope of initiatives affecting energy transitions, the alignment of local and regional policies with national, EU, and international policies, and areas of improvement. Mapping the complex landscape of social energy policies in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece enhances local capacities to design tailored and inclusive energy policies that address the needs of vulnerable populations and align with broader European sustainability goals.
As the EU accelerates its transition to climate neutrality, these approaches offer critical insights into how local and regional authorities can be empowered to take ownership of the energy transition while fostering inclusive and participatory processes that ensure no one is left behind in taking care of the social and ecological dimension in the decarbonization pathways. This means creating policy mixes that are adaptable and responsive, ensuring that the strategies developed are practical, inclusive, and aligned with local priorities.
Although the outcomes of establishing pathways of engagement to empower citizens to shape policies are already interesting, the future challenges are high. One key to the success of these approaches is the transparent and effective co-design process, which truly integrated the citizens’ and stakeholders’ needs, priorities, and expectations in future social energy policies.