Across Europe, citizens, SMEs and local and regional governments are taking our energy future into their own hands, building the energy system we need to free Europe from its fossil fuel addiction and ensure its energy security.
Energy communities are demonstrating that renewable energy is not just a tool for decarbonization but a foundation for more just, democratic and resilient societies. They stabilize prices, and ensure clean energy is accessible to everyone (e.g. renters, the most vulnerable citizens) while also driving energy literacy and behavioural change, such as flexibility and demand reduction. As such they are an important first step towards a broader culture where the combined potential of sufficiency, efficiency and renewables is maximized to create an energy secure and climate resilient Europe.
The Citizens’ Energy Package is a key opportunity to ensure that citizens and their local
communities are the owners and direct beneficiaries of the energy transition. This package, coming amidst the Clean Industrial Deal, the Competitiveness Compass and the Action Plan for Affordable Energy, must address persistent barriers that hinder the emergence and development of community energy projects – from incomplete transposition of existing laws, including a lack of supportive frameworks for energy communities at the national level, to protecting them from corporate capture and abuse – and set a vision for scaling up and across citizen-led initiatives. Moreover, it must tackle energy poverty and prioritize energy savings as central components, leveraging the unique strengths of energy communities to achieve these goals.
This document builds on our previously published POWERING COMMUNITIES: Principles for a fair, sustainable Citizens’ Energy Package and provides policy proposals to guide the European
Commission in shaping the Citizen’s Energy Package. It reflects our coalition’s vision for an energy transition that prioritizes people and local communities, and builds a fairer, greener, and resilient energy system.
Read the Community Power Coalition’s 5 demands for a Citizens’ Energy Package that is fair and accessible to all.
