Promoting renewable energy in Italy: the role of municipalities and citizens

Nowadays, everyone can see the effects of Climate Change: unexpected floods, longer droughts, ice melting, and the rise of sea levels. The science states that ensuring global warming does not exceed a 2°C rise (compared to preindustrial levels) is fundamental. Changing our economies into sustainable ones, and moving to renewable energy represents an important step towards this direction. Solar, wind, and water power don’t turn out emissions into the atmosphere and can regenerate. After all, 75% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the production and use of energy, therefore the EU has approved the European Green Deal, a collection of proposals to reach carbon neutrality within 2050.

The Union’s method for net zero emission by 2050 is to gradually leave fossil fuels and move to clean energy. This should ensure energy saving, the security of the supply, and the control of the energy market and prices. In this context, the EU has defined the mandatory guidelines with regulations and directives. Still, Member States have many possibilities to promote renewables, particularly using the assistance of local institutions and citizens. This normative background shows that, for issues that pertain to new and clean energies, there isn’t a specific level of government but that all the institutions - from the European level to the local - need to work together to catch up with the Green Deal goals. As such, energy transition represents a multilevel governance system in which each institution contributes. In Italy, the implementation of green energy falls under a shared legislative competence between the State, individual regions, and the European Union. Consequently, in this framework, involvement from local autonomies and citizens is crucial.

First of all, the role of local institutions is vital because cities produce 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and in Italy, 70% of the population lives in cities. Secondly, because the city’s institutions are closer to their citizenship, cities know their inhabitant’s needs and can communicate and stimulate the best practices for ecological transition. In 2008, the Covenant of Mayors was founded by the European Commission as a platform to integrate this exchange.

Now, how does the Covenant work? The Covenant’s signatories must approve the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan within two years of having joined the Covenant. This Action Plan contains mitigation and adaptation strategies and both are key to achieve the objectives. A combination of the residential-service, municipal, and transportation sectors in addition to buildings, transportation, energy, water, waste, land management, environment and biodiversity, agriculture and forestry, health, civil protection and emergency, and tourism will be evaluated.

The identification of a particular sector is very relevant because in this way it’s possible to define the single actions that need the participation of civil society. For example, the energy efficiency of buildings, and the implementation of public transportation (not only with electric, hybrid, or Hydrogen vehicles but also with integrated mobility systems) aren’t possible without citizen collaboration. In this way, city institutions can promote actions of decarbonization by increasing the use of renewables whilst also informing people thus creating knowledge and making their know-how and funding available.

In this regard, ENEA (National Agency for New Technologies, Energy, and Sustainable Economic Development) underlines that in the ten years following 2008, 60% of municipalities subscribed to the Covenant of Mayors, and the adhesion rate is higher in the bigger cities than in smaller ones. Data show that the municipality’s engagement is fundamental for almost all the mitigation and adaptation actions which include citizen awareness, energy management, funding, and agreement). Therefore, the sustainable goals are less distant if there is a higher participation of the local level. Furthermore, it’s vital to share knowledge from the best-performing cities with others. Another crucial action is to strengthen cooperation between all levels of government.

The spread of renewables isn’t possible without the action of civil society. Citizens can place photovoltaic panels on the roofs of their houses or in other privately-owned places. Citizens can also form associations to produce, consume, and sell green energy. This is the phenomenon of self-consumption that under given conditions can generate renewable energetic communities.

These communities arise from partnerships between citizens, small and medium-sized companies, municipalities, regions, schools, and volunteer organizations. The community represents a juridic subject whose goal is not to make profit but better their social and environmental surroundings. All the participants of such communities work towards the reduction of energy costs as well as facilitating the ecological transition promoting clean energy at the same time.

The European directive also defines the guidelines for renewable energy communities, the Member State transposes them into a national regulation then the Regions can adopt their detailed legislation. By this time, the municipalities can take action to drive the communities or the same citizens may implement them themselves. So in a multilevel system, the contribution of all the social components is crucial for the promotion of renewable energies.