Madrid hosts the session “Governance and participation” organized by the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development (REDS-SDSN Spain) to discuss citizen participation in the process of deploying renewable energies | Environmental News

2023-12-11 11:03:20

The Spanish Network for Sustainable Development (REDS-SDSN Spain) organizes the work session “Governance and participation” the next December 13th in Madrid, which will address the processes of citizen participation during the installation of renewable energy projects (terrestrial wind and solar photovoltaic), and actions to generate greater social acceptance towards energy transition.

The session will be held at the headquarters of the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE) in Madrid and is the third to be organized as part of the project “Renewables with the territory: a shared vision“, with which REDS-SDSN Spain promotes the co-creation of a shared vision between key actors on what the deployment of renewable energies in Spain should be like in 2030 and 2050.

In this work day, we will reflect on governance and participation during the design, construction and operation stages of renewable energy projects (solar photovoltaic and terrestrial wind) and communication with different local agents, taking into account the established measures. in the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) 2021-2030.

In addition, participants will analyze the most appropriate moments for this participation in the project deployment stages, and what actions would be most appropriate to materialize these actions. This seeks to extract a clearer definition of the scope of citizen participation in these processes, as well as to identify simple and standardized measures of action for projects of this magnitude that generate an impact on the natural environment and people. The massive installation of renewable energies is one of the pillars of the energy transition, which in turn entails modifications and impacts on different ecosystems and aspects of society.

In some cases this generates tension in the communities in which these energy facilities are located, due to the lack of capacity to be part of the decisions and express opinions in the process of location and installation of the infrastructure, which added to other Problems have motivated opposition to numerous projects. On the contrary, the acceptance of projects at the local level, guaranteeing greater transparency and participation, is essential for the installation of renewable energies. Representatives from different organizations and sectors are invited to participate in this session: national and local public administration, deployment companies, electricity companies, civil society, unions, academia and local agents.

“Governance and participation” is the third of four sessions that comprise the project “Renewables with the territory: a shared vision”, after the first of them was held in Madrid on June 28, “Synergies between renewable energies, employment and local occupation”, in which the correlation between the installation of renewable projects and the creation of employment in the territories was addressed.

A roadmap for the deployment of renewable energies

The second session, “Biodiversity, Landscape and Heritage”, took place in Higueruela (Albacete) on October 17, and discussed the relationship between the installation of these plants and their impact on biodiversity and local landscapes. The fourth session of the project will be “Local Development”, which will be held in the coming months and will pay attention to the search for schemes to generate social benefits for the territories in which renewables are installed.

The project led by REDS-SDSN Spain has the collaboration of the Eudemon project, a work initiative on identification, understanding and resolution of socio-ecological conflicts, as well as the multidisciplinary team specialized in environmental law INSTA.

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