Energy Transitions in Europe: The role of cities, regions and territories

Workshop organized by Larry Reynolds (Paris IAS fellow), sponsored by EDF R&D.

Presentation

European countries are attempting to make an ‘energy transition’ to address climate change and the urgent need to reduce CO2 emissions. City and regional authorities along with local communities are called on to play a leading role in this. But there are different and often competing visions of what this energy transition should look like. Some actors advance localised and decentralised versions of a future energy system that often contrast with other more centralised national or continental strategies.

The workshop will bring together researchers from Germany, Britain and France to examine what is happening, compare experiences and debate what needs to be done.

Key questions include:

How have local, city and community energy transitions developed in the different national contexts of the three countries?

How do strategies and visions of localised energy production and distribution fit with national and global processes of energy transition? What kinds of social, economic, technical and governance problems are encountered?

What are the relationships between public, private and community actors? What are their motivations and rationales? What are the tensions and also the dynamics of cooperation between these different kinds of institutions? How do actors at different scales, from national to local work with each other?

Which kinds of regulation frameworks and financing arrangements are found to encourage these local initiatives? How can we understand the tensions and resistances but also the dynamics of cooperation between local energy ecosystems and the national institutions which ensure energy safety and fair development between the regions and their territories?

This workshop will give us the opportunity to study the energy transition process in Europe, and to examine the dynamics of change between local and national scales across different countries and at the European Union level.

Presentations in English and French, with simultaneous translation

Program

09:10 – Words of welcome (Jean-Baptiste Bart, EDF R&D, and Gretty Mirdal, IEA de Paris)

Germany
Chair : Marc Trotignon (EDF R&D)

09:30 – Bastian Hoffmann (European Institute for Energy Research) : "The German energy transition at crossroads - a critical review of where we are"

10:00 – Jens Koehrsen (Basel University): "Urban energy transitions in Germany: insights from case studies in Bottrop and Emden"

10:30 – Discussion

11:00 – Break

United Kingdom
Chair : Sylvie Douzou (EDF R&D)

11:15 – Stephen Hall (Leeds University) : "Distributing Power: What does civic energy need to thrive?"

11:45 – Larry Reynolds (IEA de Paris) : "Municipal Energy Transition in the UK – investigating new forms of public ownership at the intersections of market, state and civil society"

12:15 – Discussion

13:00 – Lunch break

France
Chair : Marc Guyon (EDF R&D)

14:00 – Marie Degremont (Sciences Po, CSO) : "Comment les collectivités territoriales françaises se saisissent-elles du thème de la transition énergétique"

14:30 – Pauline Gabillet (LATTS) : "Les entreprises locales de distribution, bras armés des politiques énergétiques territoriales?"

15:00 – Discussion

15:30 – Break

Global and comparative approaches
Chair : Mathieu Brugidou (EDF R&D)

15:45 – Thomas Reverdy (Université de Grenoble, PACTE) : "Politique énergétique et marché de l’électricité, une régulation distribuée entre des autorités interdépendantes"

16:15 – Olivier Coutard (CNRS, LATTS) : "Politiques urbaines de transition énergétique : stratégies, projets, enjeux"

16:45 – Discussion

17:15 – Concluding remarks by Célia Blauel, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of environmental questions, sustainable development, water, canals and the “territorial climate action plan”