New peer-reviewed research from the ENTRACK project shows why social energy policy needs to be designed with rural communities
A new peer-reviewed paper from the ENTRACK project explores this question across rural municipalities in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, focusing on the links between energy, social policy and local governance.
The research highlights a significant gap between top-down energy policies and the realities experienced by rural citizens. Financial constraints, limited access to information, complex support schemes and local capacity gaps can all prevent vulnerable households from benefiting from energy-efficiency and renewable energy measures.
To better understand these challenges, ENTRACK combines policy mapping, ethnographic research, policymaker self-evaluation and participatory co-design. The findings show how bringing citizens, local authorities and other stakeholders together can help identify local priorities and develop more practical and inclusive solutions.
Across the four countries, co-design activities have explored approaches including Renewable Energy Communities, energy poverty diagnosis, residential energy retrofitting, local funding schemes and community-scale energy solutions.
Read the full publication here: https://eceeeproceedings.org/articles/10.66506/essp.3-173-26
Authors:
Cléro, J, Viero, G, Castro, C, Mahoney, K, Lopes, R, Gouveia, JP, Benaglia, B, Calzolari, F, Caliri, G, Musaro, S, Varvesi, M, Dicuonzo, V, Ragazzo, F, Valdés, L, Ramos, C, Galvany, N and Estalella, J.