Powering together: Public acceptance for RES and clean transition projects
Chair
Tsvetelina Penkova MEP, EEF President
Speakers
Per-Oscar Hedman, Director, Corporate Relations Sweden, Fortum
Konstantinos Mavros, Deputy CEO, RES, PPC Group
Pauline Lucas, Policy Director, Euroheat & Power
Paula Rey Garcia, Deputy Head of Unit for Renewables and Energy System Integration Policy, DG ENER
Clean energy transition will mean fundamental changes to our societies and public acceptance plays a crucial role because it directly impacts the speed and success, including costs, of implementing new clean energy projects and policies.
In various parts of Europe, municipalities are hesitant to approve new energy projects due to social, economic and political reasons and issues such as misinformation, concerns over the environmental or visual impact, lead to delayed projects. Reasons for caution are surprisingly different depending on the countries and our speakers tonight will bring a broad overview of the experience they have.
Fortum and PPC will share the view of the Nordic and Southern Eastern Europe countries on developing ways to address the issue, including transparent and inclusive decision-making processes, and provide concrete examples of consistent engagement with local communities. Euroheat & Power will broaden the scope showcasing district heating and cooling projects working with communities and whole neighborhoods and will present with examples of sustainable heat acceptance.
Public acceptance is the underlying precondition to making the energy transition happen, reaching our targets, our electrification agenda and the decarbonizing of the heating and cooling sector. We look forward to discussing the issue with you.
We look forward to welcoming you to this debate and hearing your thoughts!