EUSEW: Lessons on climate neutrality and energy independence from the EU islands

DESCRIPTION:

In the wake of the Ukraine war, the EU aspires to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and ramp up green energy production. EU islands will present their lessons learned to smart cities.

The session objective is to share the small-scale island experience in transitioning towards clean energy and energy independence with the smart cities and communities of the EU. The format will make the transfer of knowledge very concrete: two clean energy island experiences from the EU islands secretariat will be paired with equivalent challenges from the Smart Cities Marketplace’s scope. The debate will move from island to continent, from small-scale to EU scale, and experiment to the mainstream. After each round, the public will have the opportunity to intervene and judge whether the solution is deemed relevant.

In the discussion, we focus on multi-level governance to accelerate the energy transition and on how to ensure that local communities own the energy transition.

Moderation

• Jan Cornillie, Project director Clean Energy for EU Island Secretariat (3E)

Speakers:

• Pau de Vilchez Moragues, Chair of the Climate Change Committee of the Balearic Islands //
  Deputy director of the Interdisciplinary Lab on Climate Change of the University of the Balearic Islands (LINCC UIB) // Lecturer in International Public Law
• Alexios Chatzimpiros, Project Manager, Samsø Energy Academy
• Leen Peeters, owner and manager, Th!nk E
• Sinead Hourigan, Collaboration Manager, Urban Innovation Department, Limerick City and County Council