IMAGINE Low Energy Cities

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Traditionally broached from an economic or technical point of view, energy has gradually become a cultural, citizen, territorial, civilizational and governance issue. From a territorial perspective, cities are facing great challenges in order to engage in a transition towards a low energy future, while offering a high quality of life for all. This transition needs the involvement of many stakeholders and the co-creation of innovative and integrated solutions. As well, it requires a cross sectoral approach and a common vision to be pursued in order to give a framework to the joint efforts of all engaged stakeholders. The IMAGINE project proposes to address these challenges through interregional exchanges of knowledge and experience. In the end, it will enable cities to review and assess their own transition strategy and to elaborate Local Energy Roadmaps 2050 thanks to the engagement of local stakeholders around local authorities (LAs). IMAGINE aims at contributing to the understanding of local governance, while focusing on local stakeholder dialogue and the local co-construction process of a long-term vision of the energy future of a city. The outputs of this participative process will then be integrated in the LA’s policies and action plans. It is intended to capitalise on existing local activities in order to evaluate and exchange experiences to get a better understanding of governance mechanisms. In order to do so, IMAGINE will focus on - Developing and testing a methodology to assess local energy transition strategies from a governance perspective, as well as from a territorial and multi-stakeholder perspective - Identify success factors and possibilities to reproduce the activities, but also address challenges - Identify existing participative tools and methods The partnership consists of 8 local authorities throughout Europe, a European city network as lead partner and an academic partner. Practically, a series of interregional seminars will be held throughout the project in order to focus on local case studies, bring in conceptual inputs and exchange practices. Exchange will also take place during low energy cities workshops, peer review workshops and mayors/political leaders seminars. Each participating city will run a series of local forums in order to progress on its local Energy Roadmap. Final output will be the “Low Energy Cities Policy Handbook”, including local case studies and participative tools. It will also present workshop and seminars outputs and give policy guidelines. As results, participating cities will - have a clear view of their local transition strategy, - benefit from knowledge and know-how exchanges in order to create local sustainable energy partnerships including relevant local stakeholders around the LA - have developed a Local Energy Roadmap for 2050 and an approved and shared local vision of the energy future of the city, which will influence local policies.

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