This post is written by Laura Hohoff and Daniela Amann at Demsoc.

  • The problem: The energy transition involves the development of new energy grids and the retrofitting of buildings and, thus, interferes in citizens’ most personal spheres. However, there are few answers on how the conditions can be created under which citizens can support this transition and how they can become active agents of change.
  • Why it matters: Cities in particularly cold or hot climates produce a major part of their emissions from heating and cooling. Thus, to accelerate the energy transition, owners of flats and buildings, tenants and citizens need to support the retrofitting of their buildings and construction sites on their streets.
  • The solution: Citizen participation in the energy transition is more than the involvement in the reconstruction of one street or one house. Rather, just as the energy transition is a highly complex system transformation in which change at different levels must be closely intertwined, the question of the role of citizens at these different levels must be explored as one.

The energy transition is one of the major challenges for cities. It involves the transition to decarbonised heating and cooling systems for our infrastructure and buildings as well as the renovation and retrofit that is necessary for the new systems to work.

In Vienna, for example, 30% of CO2 emissions derive from the building sector–and 90% of them are due to gas heating. Other cities face similar challenges making the energy transition a crucial lever that needs to be tackled to decarbonise cities.

But what does it mean for citizens, building or flat owners and residents? How can they be supported and become active agents of change?

Between 2021 and 2022, Demsoc collaborated with the Energy department of the City of Vienna to look at the participation aspect of the energy transition. We’ve explored the conditions that need to be created to allow citizens to support the energy transition, as well as what methods and concepts that could be used to recognise citizens as active agents of the energy transition. In this post we share our findings from this research, as well as our overall work with cities in our climate and democracy work.

A participation strategy for the energy transition: three areas to explore

From our experience as well as our recent research project with the City of Vienna, we suggest three central areas that cities should explore when developing a participation strategy for the energy transition:

  • Appropriate political and legal framework conditions.
  • Effective communication and support for owners, renters and residents.
  • Development of participation methods to engage, involve and empower citizens in the energy transition.

When exploring political and legal conditions, the priority should be given to the cooperation with and sensibilisation of relevant stakeholders. Through exchange, better solutions can be found, and bridges and synergies can be created–an important lever to accelerate the energy transition. The following aspects should be explored:

  • Development of long-term, political framework conditions and a cross-departmental implementation strategy, providing security and clarity to stakeholders.
  • Review and adaptation of legal regulations to enable a socially just transition. This could include contract and price transparency, as well as rights and responsibilities of tenants and owners.
  • Ensuring affordability,for the overall building renovation; the housing unit (including possible appliance replacement); and the (possibly higher) energy costs.
  • Exploration and support **of self-organisation and management of citizens ** (such as energy communities) as well as innovative solutions for financial support for the transition, increasing motivation and at the same time reducing barriers for first-movers.

Independent consultation and communication strategy

Our work with cities shows that information and consultation for retrofit policy, including available subsidies and rights and responsibilities of owners and tenants are a crucial lever. But information is not enough: it needs to reach the target audiences. Identification of target groups as well as the development of a communication and mobilisation strategy can form important steps. We suggest to assess the following aspects:

  • Ensure accessible and independent information on quality retrofit/technical partners, calculation of cost savings, rights and responsibilities of (rental) tenants; this information could be provided by an independent consultancy service on retrofit.
  • Develop narratives for communication: Communication and mobilisation through narratives can be very powerful. These can include tangible images of the future through local, green, secure jobs; post-covid future; independence from gas and oil.
  • Identifying ownership structures and using targeted communication to owners and tenants.

Partners can be the city and professions that will no longer be needed in a decarbonised future, or that will need to change.

Participatory methods for energy transitions

In many cities there are little to no available methods for participation in the energy transition. However, there is no need to start from zero. Already existing methods from other areas can be adapted to the context of housing and energy. To us, participation methods focusing on creating an enhanced sense of community are particularly powerful, as they could enable a shared sense of responsibility for the neighbourhood and city. At the same time, in case investments are needed from the side of owners, tenants, and residents, these methods need to be combined with financial solutions.

Participation could and should, however, go beyond individual buildings to include wider strategies. This is why in our work with Vienna, we developed the concept of The Future Street.

The Future Street describes a process in which the energy carrier change and necessary infrastructure development in a street can be built upon a participatory process that gives homeowners, tenants and residents a voice in shaping their living environment. The process creates room for discussion and incentives to retrofit homes and connect them to the new energy system. At the heart lies the question: How can the necessary infrastructure development in the energy transition be used as a window of opportunity to shape the public space and to advance retrofit and energy switch of the existing building stock?

Conclusion: From one-off involvement to a systemic approach

Our experience shows that citizen participation in the energy transition is more than the involvement in the reconstruction of one street or one house. Rather, just as the energy transition is a highly complex system transformation in which change at different levels must be closely intertwined, the question of the role of citizens at these different levels must be explored as one.

The real challenge is that the energy transition involves a lot of questions that have no single answer. These questions all require different voices to be answered, creating a joint vision of the future. For example:

How can a city support people and companies in phasing out old technologies and at the same time mobilise skilled workers? - A climate alliance could be established with the focus on local, green, secure jobs. Partners can be the city and professions that will no longer be needed in a decarbonised future, or that will need to change. The aim could be to explore training, retraining, and resources needed.

Who should act as implementers in the energy market of the future? How can a city promote decentralisation and become an enabler? - A space for exchange and learning with existing energy communities and urban commons could be created with the goal to find out through which measures the city can actively support participation, ownership, self-management, and new economies.

How do we ensure the energy transition is affordable for people? Who benefits from the measures and who does not? Who can participate and who cannot? - Stakeholders can be invited to discuss how the energy transition could be used as a lever to combine climate and social policy. From our experience, a way forward is to not look away from these difficult questions, but make them as concrete as possible to be able to start identifying a pathway to answering them.

The energy transition is not an easy challenge, but by approaching it through participation and democracy, it will be possible to collectively find solutions that can be supported.

The Climate Team of Democratic Society works at the intersection between participation and climate. If you are interested in our work, please visit our webpage, or get in touch with us.

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