In 2020 and 2021, the Energy Transition Partner City project accompanied a total of ten European municipalities in five city pairs in their progress towards the local energy transition and encouraged them to exchange ideas. across national borders contributed. The final conference on 25 March 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 the digital space. In the meantime, a film has been made (see below) about why municipalities and European cooperation are so important for the success of the energy transition.
The aim of the "Energiewende PartnerStadt" project was to exchange expertise and experience on the local energy transition across national borders, facilitate technology transfer in the field of renewable energies and support cohesion in Europe.
We would like to thank the representatives of the twin towns of Alheim (DE)/ Dunleer (IRL), Braunsbedra (DE)/ Kozani (GR), Marburg (DE)/ Koscierzyna (PL), Pfaffenhofen (DE)/ Galway (IRL) and Steinhagen (DE)/ Woerden (NL), the Federal Foreign Office and Ellery Studio for inspiring this film and bringing it to life. Phasing out coal, the transformation of the energy system, climate education for children and young people, 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 launch joint initiatives for the energy transition, identify common points of contact and synergies and thus contribute to joint learning about the energy transition and European understanding.
The "Energy Transition Partner City" project, which was funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, was a cooperation between the Berlin Governance Platform and the Agency for Renewable Energies. The German Association of Local Utilities (VKU) and the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DGStB) supported the project activities as practice partners, 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.