PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
As recognized by recent EU frameworks, local and regional authorities have a key role in the implementation of energy and climate targets to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050. However, local policymakers, especially in rural communities, often do not have adequate knowledge and technical capacity to undertake socially just energy planning processes. ENTRACK proposal stems from this urgent need, addressing knowledge and capacity gaps of local authorities and supporting them in co-designing social energy plans that respond to the real energy needs of regional and local stakeholders, including vulnerable citizens, and that are also in compliance with the European and national energy policy frameworks. Through the employment of participatory approaches (i.e. multi-actor perspective analysis, empowerment evaluation, and participatory ethnography) and the delineation of a co-designing, bottom-up approach that starts from local actors and integrates energy and social policies in the regional and sub-regional frameworks, ENTRACK will support Mediterranean rural municipalities in co-designing feasible, ambitious, and just energy plans. Specifically, ENTRACK will build and pilot methodologies and capacity-building processes in 8 selected rural municipalities in 4 Mediterranean countries: 2 in Greece (Region of Eastern Macedonia & Thrace), 2 in Italy (Region of Campania), 2 in Portugal (Region of Alto Alentejo) and 2 in Spain (Region of Catalunya-Pirineus). The final goal of the project is three folded: first, to support the co-design of energy plans in the 8 piloting municipalities; second, to deliver social energy co-designing action-based training to build capacity of policy actors; third, to deliver a ready-to-use scalable methodology on how to co-design policies with citizens in rural Mediterranean area.