ACCESS partner meeting on the needs for and potential of climate action
One of the sessions in April’s virtual Partner Meeting focused on a tool – developed by VITO / EnergyVille – that allows to determine and visualise the needs for and potential of climate action within a city or region.
The goal of the tool - which VITO/EnergyVille has been using in the past and which was now implemented for each ACCESS pilot city – is to support the development of an energy roadmap and to provide insights in a comprehensible way, also for non-expert users. The tool identifies boundaries and manoeuvring space: an energy roadmap is usually designed for the long term (10 to 30 years) but not all is set in stone from the start. Both technological, political and economic changes will appear along the way.
Therefore, identifying upper and lower limits between which the city administration and politicians can manoeuvre, offers valuable insights.
Through this workshop, VITO/EnergyVille was able to collect feedback on the tool and gain insights on its applicability in other countries, while the ACCESS pilot cities got an overview of challenges and possibilities within their region. The session also allowed for the knowledge partners to explore the complementarity of different tools.
One of the main takeaways from this session is that the tool is well received by the partners. Adding the local policy framework to this theoretical and technical exercise, which is within the scope of task 4.2, will be very useful as policies and laws can enable or hinder climate action. We identified for example a high theoretical potential for onshore wind energy in one pilot city, while at the same time the political climate is rather averse towards the onshore wind. The tool can also be used to compare cities on a national or European level in terms of feasibility to reach a certain climate target, or in terms of measures taken in specific domains. This in turn might inspire a city to explore opportunities or technologies it otherwise would have omitted.
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