Good practices
Good practices

Project

Public engagement for energy infrastructure

The Engage4Energy project provided best-practice guidance to support inclusive energy transition efforts, ensuring societal needs and concerns are considered.

Project

Topic

Public Acceptance & Engagement

Dimension

Energy & Society

Achieving international climate and energy goals will require a rapid and profound transformation of our energy system. Considering this process affects people all over the world, public engagement is crucial to ensure that society’s views, needs and concerns are considered and that a truly just and inclusive energy transition is pursued.

To facilitate this, the Engage4Energy Project focused on creating guidance on how public engagement can be promoted within the context of building renewable energy and grid infrastructure.

Over the past years and decades, many participation and involvement processes and practices have been developed, but no comprehensive overview of factors for success and failure exists. The project started filling this information gap by evaluating past and current participatory actions and drawing lessons for effective engagement, including useful formats and degrees of involvement.

The researchers behind this project provided transferable and actionable guidance for future engagement activities done by project developers and public authorities. Learn more about the project outcomes below.

Project partners and goals

RGI and the Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy (IEECP) led the project, funded by the User-Centred Energy Systems (UsersTCP) – part of the IEA Technology Collaboration Programme.

The project run from March 2023 to April 2024 and aimed at:

01

Identifying common challenges and drivers for effective public engagement on energy infrastructure.

02

Collecting evidence from international case studies about which public engagement approaches are effective or ineffective.

03

Developing a best practice guidance for public engagement around energy infrastructure.

Project implementation

Throughout the project, we involved stakeholders, specifically in the form of interviews and workshop participation. Based on their inputs, as well as a comprehensive literature analysis and the assessment of 98 cases, an interactive guide for meaningful engagement in energy infrastructure has been developed.

This will also lead to the provision of policy-relevant insights on effective engagement of the public in energy infrastructure developments – all with the overall aim of speeding up and improving public acceptance for the energy transition.

hIGHLIGHTED RESOURCE

E4E INTERACTIVE TOOL

The Engage4Energy Guidelines for citizens, developers and policymakers on meaningful engagement in energy infrastructure projects have been launched based on RGI and IEECP’s year-long research

Public Acceptance & Engagement

contact

Dr. Andrzej Ceglarz

Director – Energy Systems

Dr. Andrzej Ceglarz

Director – Energy Systems

t: +49 30 233211014
Andrzej has been working at RGI since May 2017, having previously cooperated with RGI as researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Currently, he works as a Director for Energy Systems, being responsible for projects and activities under the RGI’s Technical Dimension addressing the questions how to plan, design and implement a carbon-free and optimised energy system. He holds a Master Degree in International Relations from the Wrocław University and completed his PhD at the School of Social Sciences and Technology at the Technical University of Munich.

Nathália Pimentel

Manager – Communication & Energy Systems

Nathália Pimentel

Manager – Communication & Energy Systems

t: +49 30 2332 11035
Nathália joined RGI in November 2022 as Junior Manager within the communication team. Currently, she works as Manager – Communication & Energy Systems. She is responsible for communication-related tasks, while also co-leading different activities within the Grids & Energy Systems Dimension in RGI. Her main work topics are circularity and stakeholder engagement, as well as permitting and acceleration of renewables and grid infrastructure. Previously, she worked for the private sector, as well as GIZ Brazil and the European Union’s International Urban Cooperation Program in Latin America and the Caribbeans (IUC-LAC). Nathália studied at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG) in Brazil, and the University of Pécs (PTE) in Hungary. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations.

Dr. Ira Shefer

Manager – Energy Systems

Dr. Ira Shefer

Manager – Energy Systems

t: +49 30 2332 11000
Ira joined the Technical Team at RGI in July 2023. Previously he worked in the BMBF-funded research project Ariadne on local acceptance of wind energy in Germany. Ira holds a Ph.d. from the Technical University of Munich, researching transnational collaborations and their impacts on local climate governance and policy making. He has a MA of Environmental Studies at Nagoya University (Japan) and has a joint Bachelor of Law (LLB) and Asian Studies from Haifa University (Israel. Ira was engaged in several research initiatives that addressed, among others, urban climate governance (at RIFS, Germany) and green building (ILGBC, Israel). He was also a reporter and sections editor at an Israeli magazine for seven years, covering environmental and development issues.

Dr. Andrzej Ceglarz

Director – Energy Systems

Dr. Andrzej Ceglarz

Director – Energy Systems

t: +49 30 233211014
Andrzej has been working at RGI since May 2017, having previously cooperated with RGI as researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Currently, he works as a Director for Energy Systems, being responsible for projects and activities under the RGI’s Technical Dimension addressing the questions how to plan, design and implement a carbon-free and optimised energy system. He holds a Master Degree in International Relations from the Wrocław University and completed his PhD at the School of Social Sciences and Technology at the Technical University of Munich.

Nathália Pimentel

Manager – Communication & Energy Systems

Nathália Pimentel

Manager – Communication & Energy Systems

t: +49 30 2332 11035
Nathália joined RGI in November 2022 as Junior Manager within the communication team. Currently, she works as Manager – Communication & Energy Systems. She is responsible for communication-related tasks, while also co-leading different activities within the Grids & Energy Systems Dimension in RGI. Her main work topics are circularity and stakeholder engagement, as well as permitting and acceleration of renewables and grid infrastructure. Previously, she worked for the private sector, as well as GIZ Brazil and the European Union’s International Urban Cooperation Program in Latin America and the Caribbeans (IUC-LAC). Nathália studied at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG) in Brazil, and the University of Pécs (PTE) in Hungary. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations.

Dr. Ira Shefer

Manager – Energy Systems

Dr. Ira Shefer

Manager – Energy Systems

t: +49 30 2332 11000
Ira joined the Technical Team at RGI in July 2023. Previously he worked in the BMBF-funded research project Ariadne on local acceptance of wind energy in Germany. Ira holds a Ph.d. from the Technical University of Munich, researching transnational collaborations and their impacts on local climate governance and policy making. He has a MA of Environmental Studies at Nagoya University (Japan) and has a joint Bachelor of Law (LLB) and Asian Studies from Haifa University (Israel. Ira was engaged in several research initiatives that addressed, among others, urban climate governance (at RIFS, Germany) and green building (ILGBC, Israel). He was also a reporter and sections editor at an Israeli magazine for seven years, covering environmental and development issues.