Welcome to Develop Athens SA, Pays Basque urban community and Lizzanello
Energy Cities is proud to welcome new members, and we look forward to meeting at our next annual forum in April in Besançon!
Athens – A new initiative to tackle energy poverty
Develop Athens SAis the strategic development arm of the Municipality of Athens, spearheading projects and initiatives that promote the city’s sustainability, resilience, and economic vitality.
In 2024, the City of Athens developed a new strategy to take on energy poverty and launched the Energy Poverty Office.
Develop Athens SAis responsible for running this Office of the City of Athens. The Office is required to keep records of households’ energy consumption and support them in achieving efficiency. The office will also be able to provide Athens’ residents with valuable information on energy behaviour issues and advice on how to efficiently tackle energy issues.
Athens faces the challenge of the effects of climate change which are increasingly apparent: social, ethnic and health inequalities are deepening, resources are becoming scarcer while consumption is growing.
The city has developed a Resilience Strategy to pave the way for a city that is proactive, setting forth concrete actions that address issues of maintenance, safety, efficiency and accountability, crisis preparedness and management.
Pays Basque urban community – Involving as many people as possible to make the local ecological transition a success
This is the watchword of the Basque metropolitan urban community. Everyone must get involved: elected representatives as well as the staff of government departments, businesses, associations and citizens!
For each entity: a tool, an action!
A support fund has been set up for citizens’ initiatives, providing partial funding for more than 40 projects since 2022, funding for participative companies involved in the development of renewable energies, and training courses consisting of awareness-raising workshops for the metropolitan urban community’s staff.
In 2024, the 4th KLIMA Week, involving all local stakeholders, enabled attending municipalities, businesses and associations to work together and identify more than 6,200 commitments to be implemented.
Lizzanello – Optimisation of economic resources, renewables and citizen participation
Lizzanello is a small city with about 12,000 inhabitants. It recently took part in an EU project to optimise economic resources and introduce clean energy.
The city has installed solar panels on its own buildings. For example, the city hall now has a 6kW photovoltaic system while the school has been equipped with a 19.50 kW system. In addition, a solar thermal panel for heating and domestic hot water production has been installed.
The municipality knows that its big challenge is now to engage citizens, especially young people, in the sustainability transition.
The city wants to develop actions involving more active participation in sustainable mobility. Lizzanello, near Lecce, is part of a mobility project, In bici i a piedi, which includes “walking school bus” and bike-sharing services. It’s a good way to involve citizens and kids.
We are delighted to welcome Energy Cities members to our next forum, where we will be offering them the chance to share and discuss funding opportunities and find partners for European projects, as well as a session to discover the diversity of opportunities our network offers its members.
See you in April in Besançon, find out the full programme HERE
The post Welcome to Develop Athens SA, Pays Basque urban community and Lizzanello appeared first on Energy Cities.
Fuente: ENERGY CITIES
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