PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE NATIONAL ENERGY AND CLIMATE PLANS

Citizens demand a faster pace of change

Last Friday 20th of September, the world’s biggest climate demonstrations ever saw millions of people calling on their leaders to tackle the climate emergency.

Europeans are willing to engage in the climate and energy transition, and the national plans to accomplish it – due December 2019 – could very much benefit from public involvement.

When will national policymakers start involving people?

Many Member States have not consulted their citizens before adopting the draft National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), and very few are expected to do so when preparing their final plans. This is against the governments' legal obligations under the EU Governance Regulation and the Aarhus Convention.

What are your thoughts on it? Join the conversation on #DebatingClimate! ➜

Not doing so great either

Having analysed the draft plans of Hungary, Poland, Romania, Italy and Spain, we extended our analysis to those countries that are often considered Europe’s “climate leaders”.

While the plans of Sweden, Finland, Germany, Portugal and France include ambitious goals, they too lack concrete policies and measures to deliver on the promises. The European Commission largely confirms our findings in its own analysis : governments urgently need to strengthen their plans.

Will governments finally listen?

There are many benefits in involving citizens and other stakeholders in climate decision-making: effective public participation can help raise ambition, increase public support and trigger investments (and more). The most effective way to tap into this potential is to put in place an inclusive energy and climate dialogue. How? Keep reading!

10 recommendations for national policymakers to seize the opportunities of public engagement

Click here to know more about how EU governments can develop and implement a multilevel dialogue to improve their NECPs.

Latest publications

➜ Fit to lead?: An assessment of selected draft EU energy and climate plans. Click here to read.

➜ Report on good practices in energy and climate governance (pdf.)

More here.

Save the date

➜ Regional workshops coming up! We look forward to welcoming you in Madrid and Warsaw this November.

➜ Itching to learn more about public participation and stakeholder
engagement? Watch our webinars

Be our guest

Share your content with us! Recent guest articles:
➜ EU countries’ plans to cut transport pollution fall far short of what’s needed to stop the climate crisis here. (By Carlos Calvo Ambel, T&E)
➜ Fossil fuel subsidies set to derail National Energy and Climate Plans - report here. (By Nicolas Derobert, CAN Europe)

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We want to support local and regional authorities work and to bring visibility for their climate action with our newly established capacity-sharing corner ➜ Direct access to reports, good practice, guidelines, e-learning materials and more!