Klimaschutz und soziale Belange lokal denken

Translated title: Energy poverty and climate action from a local perspective - Four strategic fields for successfully designing socially responsible climate action at the municipal level  

Municipalities play a key role as a link between citizens and policy action in designing socially responsible climate action. It is within the range of activities of cities and municipalities to implement national and international guidelines for sustainable development in concrete ways, and to let local people participate in this transformation process.

The necessary transformation of the energy system for climate action depends on widespread acceptance by the population due to the profound changes that it entails. The consideration of social concerns is of utmost importance to the success of the energy transition as a public project. Considering the particularly high energy cost burden on low-income households, new local alliances are needed to increase energy efficiency and promote energy-efficient user behaviour.

To address the cross-cutting issue of climate change and socio-political action at the local level, the authors of this paper present policy ideas for local measures in the fields of social and energy efficiency policies. These policies should support low-income households without affecting the climate policy objectives of the energy transition.