Sara Giovannini

Small islands, big moves: Renewable off-grid solutions across the sea

Because of their isolated position and their separation from the “mainland”, islands tend to depend on fossil fuel imports to get the energy they need. However, their easy access to renewable sources such as wind and wave energy presents an (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 21 June 2018 | 10h23 | 74 visits
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EU taking big step forward toward energy democracy

After a long night of negotiations, the Parliament and the Council reached a final agreement on how Europe will implement renewables over the next decades. The agreement marks an important step forward toward energy democracy, as not only it (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 14 June 2018 | 16h55 | 419 visits
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Cities: testbeds for energy innovation – Energy Atlas 2018

Changing national laws and policies is cumbersome, time-consuming and risky: what if the law or policy proves to be a dud? Cities, on the other hand, can be a hotbed of innovation. They are big enough to try out new ideas on a large scale, but (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 15 May 2018 | 17h16 | 831 visits
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HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE PASSIONATE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THEIR CITIES - FOUR #RENNES2018 LESSONS LEARNT

“To what extent does your municipality get a strong citizen participation when developing and implementing policies? Imagine a virtual line between yourself and this stage, where our transition pioneers are sitting. Let’s say the stage is the (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 8 May 2018 | 09h58 | 700 visits
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European Mobility Week Award: What Vienna and Igoumenitsa tell us about using streets differently

The EUROPEAN MOBILITY WEEK takes place each year in September. Since 2002, it provides cities and towns with an opportunity to present and test sustainable mobility alternatives with their residents and to discuss with a wider group of (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 28 March 2018 | 14h51 | 892 visits
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Joint briefing: Building on local climate and energy experience in Energy Union Governance

Despite the increasing involvement and growing political weight of local actors in European climate and energy discussions, notably through the Covenant of Mayors, these front-runners do not have a permanent political structure which recognises (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 26 March 2018 | 10h06 | 888 visits
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French cities call for decentralisation of energy policy

Regional and local level are extremely important to reach the objectives set by the Paris Agreement but in France, as in other European Countries, most of the levers are still controlled by national government and national operators. As a (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 23 March 2018 | 09h07 | 986 visits
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