A broad context from which this contribution starts is undoubtedly the one of the energy crisis and, before that, the recovery from the pandemic with all the policy tools that especially the European Union (EU) has succeeded in activating during recent years. In particular, following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the EU has urged Member States to update their National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) by also including the so-called “REPowerEU [chapters] to end dependence on Russian fossil fuels by saving energy, diversifying supplies and accelerating the clean energy transition”1 (European Council, 2023).
More specifically, “these funds must support a just and local transition helping local actors to act for energy sovereignty and respecting the planet’s boundaries. However, today it is not clear where these funds will land”2 (Energy Cities, 2023). A first criticality that might be highlighted is the one regarding the limits posed by governing such a complexity: the spatialisation from European decision-making, downscaling to urban public policies, would need a more thorough analysis, but suffice it to say that the intermediation of just Member States might not be proper to deal with such an amount of both funds and implementation schemes. To put it in another way, regions and municipalities are not involved in this phase, but a very relevant number of fundamental projects devised to enhance this necessary energy transition will depend on local authorities’ permission and management.
Another aspect that is worth of attention is the fact that the urban dimensions where these REPowerEU funds will land might not be ready to handle them, owing to some structural inefficiencies that many realities still display: “a clear example of this is the unsustainability of our current energy systems and how this impacts urban life. Most modern cities that historically had their own energy supply now depend on national energy grids and power plants running on fossil fuels in a liberalised market. Cities experience the effects of pollution, price volatility, and dependence upon foreign supply but often do not have the position or instruments to change this”3 (Loorbach and Shiroyama, 2016). This contribution dates back to some years ago, but it could not be more valid than nowadays. REPowerEU funds will turn out to play a fundamental role “to allow the diversification of gas supplies and to increase the pace of reducing dependence on fossil fuels, including more renewable energy in the energy mix. Member States are also expected to implement measures to fight energy poverty for vulnerable households”4 (Energy Cities, 2023). This last objective should indeed be a priority and major attention to this is paid in the next paragraphs.
Some of the tools that are at the disposal of cities regard, for instance, renewable energy communities, the creation of which is strongly encouraged at the European level by Directive (EU) 2018/2001 RED II, promoting energy use from renewable sources and Directive (EU) 2019/944 IEM, on common rules for the internal electricity market. Some very relevant urban best practices must be cited as far as these energy configurations are concerned and they are more and more widespread. For instance, the 2023 Covenant of Mayors Conference has collected the testimony of “Mayors and Deputy Mayors of Milan (Italy), Freiburg (Germany), Pedreguer (Spain), Łódź (Poland) and Grenoble (France) – who – presented the diversity of emergency measures that they put into place to face the crisis: from green taxation, to building renovation, promotion of energy communities, education and awareness, transport and mobility”5 (Covenant of Mayors, 2023).
Again on this, in Italy these REPowerEU funds are the “opportunity for the local and regional authorities to fund the creation of energy communities. Italy, which received so far about EUR 29 billion in grants, was able to invest EUR 2.2 billion for the promotion of renewables for energy communities and self-consumption. What is even more interesting is that the funds were directed toward municipalities with fewer than 5 000 inhabitants”6 (Energy Cities, 2023). The latter element could sound as surprising, but it precisely goes towards the objective of involving even the smallest towns in what has to be the widest possible and the most diffused effort to improve energy efficiency, to foster energy independence and, above all, to tackle energy poverty.
Another fundamental piece of policy-making in this sector is unambiguously the one of wind energy: “REPowerEU has already brought significant improvements. But now is the time to get serious about the expansion of wind energy in Europe. It’s time to accelerate permitting. Permitting has historically been the biggest bottleneck to the buildout of wind. 80 GW of wind energy capacity are currently stuck in permitting procedures across Europe. Bureaucratic rules, understaffed permitting authorities, and time-consuming legal appeals are holding new projects back. REPowerEU has started to tackle this issue. For the first time, the EU recognised renewables as a matter of overriding public interest in its revised Renewable Energy Directive”7 (Dickson, 2023). All these steps must be welcomed with the most favourable hope for even greater advances, for the moment the joint work in this direction is very promising.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
References
- European Council (2023) REPowerEU: energy policy in EU countries’ recovery and resilience plans [Online] Available at: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-recovery-plan/repowereu/ [Access: 26.04.2023].
- Energy Cities (2023) The REPowerEU funds: an opportunity for just and local transition? [Online] Available at: https://energy-cities.eu/policy/the-repowereu-funds-an-opportunity-for-just-and-local-transition/ [Access: 26.04.2023].
- Loorbach, D., & Shiroyama, H. (2016) The Challenge of Sustainable Urban Development and Transforming Cities. In D. Loorbach, J. M. Wittmayer, H. Shiroyama, J. Fujino, & S. Mizuguchi (Eds.), Governance of Urban Sustainability Transitions. European and Asian Experiences. Tokyo: Springer Japan.
- Energy Cities (2023) The REPowerEU funds: an opportunity for just and local transition? [Online] Available at: https://energy-cities.eu/policy/the-repowereu-funds-an-opportunity-for-just-and-local-transition/ [Access: 26.04.2023].
- Covenant of Mayors (2023) How European cities are turning the energy crisis into an opportunity to drive Europe towards a climate-neutral and just future [Online] Available at: https://eu-mayors.ec.europa.eu/en/node/652 [Access: 26.04.2023].
- Energy Cities (2023) How can REPowerEU chapters make or break local transitions? [Online] Available at: https://energy-cities.eu/policy/how-can-repowereu-chapters-make-or-break-local-transitions/ [Access: 26.04.2023].
- Dickson, G. (2023) It’s time to get serious about speeding up the expansion of wind energy in Europe [Online] Available at: https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/opinion/its-time-to-get-serious-about-speeding-up-the-expansion-of-wind-energy-in-europe/ [Access: 26.04.2023].