Sara Giovannini

Climate change is everyone’s business!

As pointed out by the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC) in a recent study - you can read a short analysis by Energy Cities - this lack of action is driving new grassroots and local initiatives trying to influence climate and energy (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 12 March 2019 | 16h43 | 321 visits
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Unleashing the power of community renewable energy

Community energy production in Europe has huge potential. A recent study found that half of EU citizens – including local communities, schools and hospitals – could be producing their own renewable electricity by 2050, meeting 45% of their energy (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 14 February 2019 | 09h13 | 634 visits
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Energy Cities at COP24

Today marks the start of COP24, the 24th edition of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. For 2 weeks, the Polish city of Katowice will be the centre of attention of the climate and energy community. Energy Cities could not miss this (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 3 December 2018 | 14h50 | 1015 visits
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Transition cities: there is life after coal!

“Shrinking cities” or transition cities? Traditional narratives lead us to see an old mining city as a shrinking city, almost like a “ghost town”. A shrinking city is a city that has experienced consistent population loss due to structural changes (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 13 November 2018 | 16h55 | 1009 visits
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This small town model will help you boost energy efficiency actions in buildings!

The municipality has already set up a soft loan scheme for photovoltaics in collaboration with the Cyprus Cooperative Bank. Through its participation in the Horizon 2020 INNOVATE project, Aradippou wants to develop a similar financing scheme for (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 24 October 2018 | 09h31 | 904 visits
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Climate report echoing cities' voices: need for urgent action

Influential non-state actors expressed both their dismay and hope during this morning’s press conference: Wendel Trio, Director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, former Vice-Chair of the IPCC, Sandrine (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 8 October 2018 | 11h53 | 657 visits
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District Heating and Cooling planning made easier with Hotmaps!

Heating and cooling plays a decisive role in the long-term decarbonisation of Europe’s energy system: the sector is responsible for 51% of final energy use in Europe and about 27% of CO2 emissions. You have probably heard about such system (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 1 October 2018 | 16h15 | 613 visits
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Our 5 key demands on the next EU electricity market legislation

The EU is poised to set an unprecedented standard by formalizing the role of citizens and communities in Europe’s energy transition. By 2050, almost half of all EU households could be involved in producing renewable energy, about 37% of which (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 11 September 2018 | 12h16 | 809 visits
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How Polish cities are bucking the government’s coal trend: 5 ways to push for more renewable energy

Patrycja Płonka from our Polish sister Network “Energie Cités” (PNEC), knows a lot about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to deploying renewable energy at the local level. Earlier this year, Patrycja discussed the state-of-the-art with (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 6 September 2018 | 14h59 | 765 visits
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What if your weekend getaway could damage your health?

The parallel between the two sounds unusual but it is based on a research by Berkeley Earth, focusing on fine particulate (PM2.5) – the most commonly used measure of air pollution levels. Indeed, when visiting a city, we spend most of the time (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 20 August 2018 | 09h14 | 724 visits
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Fostering District Heating and Cooling in European Cities – Policy recommendations from the HEATNET project

Recently we have heard a lot of stories about the development of district heating (DH) networks : from Marseille’s eco-district of Îlot Allar to Bordeaux’s plan to develop a DH network powered by geothermal energy, but also London using waste heat (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 2 août 2018 | 11h00 | 895 visits
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From energy funds to match-funding: innovative ways of financing the energy transition at the local level

You may have heard the news this month: the Mayor of London has launched a £500 million energy efficiency fund (MEEF). The money is meant to support small businesses’ and public-sector organisations’ investment in reducing their bills and cutting (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 26 July 2018 | 11h28 | 807 visits
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Joint contribution: Models of local energy ownership and the role of local energy communities in energy transition in Europe

The following points were highlighted in our contribution, together with a series of examples and best practices for the rapporteur Ms Mariana Gaju to consider: Only by distributing control among local actors will we be able to get to a fair (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 12 July 2018 | 15h23 | 904 visits
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Richness of ideas vs. fuel poverty: policy initiatives to make energy affordable for all

We congratulate Cadiz for this award and take it as an opportunity to have a closer look into this thorny subject. With more than 50.000 households in Europe struggling to pay their energy bills, fuel poverty has been high on cities’ agenda for (...)

By Sara Giovannini, on 28 juin 2018 | 10h30 | 673 visits
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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 | 704 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 | 925 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 | 1078 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 | 949 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 | 1070 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 | 1098 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 | 1226 visits
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