The Energiewende Partnerstadt project says goodbye for the time being with a final video about the two-year cooperation.

zoom, March 25, 2021. The European energy transition has barely made headlines since the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the transformation of energy systems in Europe remains one of the most important challenges and opportunities. How the transformation can be concretely advanced at the municipal level is demonstrated by the Energiewende Partnerstadt project, which was funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and implemented by the Agency for Renewable Energy together with the Humboldt-Viadrina Goverance Platform. With a digital final conference, the project says goodbye for the time being to the city pairs from Germany, Ireland, Greece, the Netherlands and Poland.

 
Municipalities play a key role in the European energy transition: it is here that a large part of European legislation is implemented, it is here that renewable energy plants are built and it is here that direct contact with citizens takes place, without whose acceptance and participation the energy transition is not feasible.
Picture 1 - Film off! The Energiewende Partnerstadt project says goodbye for the time being with a final video about the two-year cooperation.

Over the past two years, the Energiewende Partnerstadt project has accompanied a total of ten European municipalities in five city pairs in their progress towards the local energy transition and contributed to an exchange across national borders. The final conference on March 25, 2021 was scheduled to take place in Berlin, but had to be postponed again and again due to the COVID-19 pandemic and finally moved entirely to digital space. In the meantime, a film has been made about why municipalities and European cooperation are so important for the success of the energy transition. Our thanks go to the representatives of the twin towns Alheim (DE)/ Dunleer (IRL), Braunsbedra (DE)/ Kozani (GR), Marburg (DE)/ Koscierzyna (PL), Pfaffenhofen (DE)/ Galway (IRL) and Steinhagen (DE)/ Woerden (NL), the German Foreign Office and Ellery Studio, who inspired this film and brought it to life. Phasing out coal, transforming the energy system, climate education of children and youth, citizen dialogues, energy cooperatives - all these and many more topics were discussed in the European exchange project. We hope that the film will inspire other partner cities to take joint initiatives for the energy transition, to jointly identify points of contact and synergies, and thus at the same time to contribute to joint learning about the energy transition and to European understanding.

The project "Energiewende Partnerstadt", funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, has been running since 2018 in cooperation between the HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA Governance Platform and the Renewable Energy Agency. As practice partners, the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU) and the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DGStB) support the project activities, which aim to strengthen the exchange of knowledge and technology between German and European municipalities through bilateral workshops and multilateral online meetings as well as kick-off and final conferences.