The 20th edition of the European Conference for the Energy Transition took place in Dunkirk from the 22nd to the 24th of January. The event gathered around 2,500 people, ten times more than for its first edition in 1999: local authories, energy experts, associations and networks, governments, businesses, students, etc. Three stimulating days to learn about what’s happening in other places and how we can reach our common goals… And there’s work ahead of us!

RURENER was present and presented a session untitled “Governance in transition: rural territories speaking”. We started the session with Stéphane Hartman who presented the process of citizens’ involvement in the Province of Luxembourg, from the Citizen Climate Assembly to the reinforcement of citizens power in the territory. Josep Subirana Jové followed, presenting the achievements of the municipality of Avià in Catalunya. In Avià, the municipality was the first to choose the sustainable development path, seeing it as the only way to go. Reinvesting the money from the energy savings, the municipality encourages financially local citizens and local businesses to invest in renewable energy.

Last but not least, Philippe Cortès, founder of the SME Granges Solaires shared his insights on the necessity to relocalize energy and change the centralised system to a decentralized production. He highlighted the crucial role of local municipalities and citizens to face the energy challenges. Vice-president of RURENER, Philippe also emphasized on the importance of sharing experience and knowledge through networks like RURENER to gain time and money and learn from one another.

We decided to give the final word of the session to the audience and asked them what word came to their mind when talking about “governance”, here’s what they said:

And you, what do you think? Is governance a subject you want to address in your territory? Did you experiment solutions? Let us know!

Download the full report here!