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This chapter aims to explore community energy (CE)—energy communities that are established and run by private citizens—in four Eastern European countries. The chapter first analyses general contextual conditions supporting the diffusion of CE initiatives in the Baltic Sea Region. Subsequently, it reports the findings of four case studies from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland illustrating some of the main drivers, barriers, and benefits of CE projects in those countries. Significative contextual differences between the eastern and western sides of the Baltic Sea Region were found. Although some countries in the eastern Baltic Sea Region have introduced policies that may promote CE projects, cultural barriers hinder citizen participation in community-based renewable energy generation.

In response to the ongoing climate crisis, many countries have issued policies to support the uptake of renewable energy. In the same vein, the European Union (EU) has issued a revised renewable energy directive in 2018. One of the pillars of the directive is the support for community energy initiatives, i.e. sustainable energy initiatives run by or with the participation of citizens. The concept of community energy (CE) has been linked to a number of advantages, such as strengthening local democratic processes or economic development for marginalised communities. The aim of this review article is to find out how past policies helped to overcome or aggravated transition challenges towards a higher share of community energy in the EU. To answer this question, we reviewed the scientific literature on community energy from the last decade. We analysed this body through a theoretical lens that highlights four main transition challenges. These occur in relation to 1) directionality, 2) demand articulation, 3) experimentation, 4) policy learning & coordination. Our results show that visions and goals are important policy tools for providing directionality in the energy transition. Feed-in-tariffs (FiT) surface as the most important policy to support community energy projects and spark demand. We found very little indication for a link between community energy and explicit experimentation. Nevertheless, learning does take place amongst peers. Our review underlined the important role intermediaries play in facilitating policy learning and coordination. We conclude by presenting a number of concrete policy recommendations such as strengthening intermediary organisations and providing administrative support to community energy initiatives in case of changes in the policy framework.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affects people worldwide. The policies in response to the virus range from closure of national borders to curfews for entire metropolises, like Paris. While we can expect severe impacts on the world economy, the consequences of the pandemic for local sustainability transitions are entirely unclear. In this exploratory study, we investigate how the current situation affects the work of transition intermediaries in the energy sector. More concretely, we aim to analyse the impact of COVID-19 policies on community energy projects and the subsequent change of work practices of intermediaries in this situation. Our data consists of qualitative data we collected between January and October 2020. Our results show that transition intermediaries are affected in different ways. Most notably, the work on networking suffers during these times of crisis. We found that intermediaries are particularly challenged in their ability to build trust. This particularly affects new and complex community energy projects and intermediation activities needed for systemic change. We found that established projects with a strong trust base are least affected by these limitations. Intermediaries dependent on private funding face much bigger problems than publically funded organisations. Our results offer some novel and relevant insights in the role and work of transition intermediaries and the development of community energy projects in times of crisis. These findings can help governments, intermediary organizations and citizen groups to design future transition processes in ways that are more resilient to external shocks.

An increasing body of literature explores the role of transnational municipal networks (TMNs) in governing sustainable development. As associations, one key task of TMNs is to represent their members through production and dissemination of information and knowledge concerning municipal action for sustainable development. Case studies, often emphasising best practice, are used by many TMNs to fulfil this task. Nevertheless, despite strong scrutiny concerning the use of case studies in “policy mobilities” research, there have been limited attempts to quantify the ways in which TMNs present and disseminate case studies and, by doing so, generate trends of presence and absence in literature on sustainable development. Assessing patterns of representation for continents, countries, municipalities and themes across nine international case study collections published by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability since 1991, this study responds to this research gap and identifies the presence of “usual suspects” in the ICLEI case study collections, along with notable absentees. By doing so, the study contributes to policy mobilities research and literature on TMNs, by encouraging reflection and further research concerning the representation patterns influencing which municipalities and what topics are presented in discourses on sustainable development.

An increasing body of literature explores the role of transnational municipal networks (TMNs) in governing sustainable development. As associations, one key task of TMNs is to represent their members through production and dissemination of information and knowledge concerning municipal action for sustainable development. Case studies, often emphasising best practice, are used by many TMNs to fulfil this task. Nevertheless, despite strong scrutiny concerning the use of case studies in ￜpolicy mobilitiesￜ research, there have been limited attempts to quantify the ways in which TMNs present and disseminate case studies and, by doing so, generate trends of presence and absence in literature on sustainable development. Assessing patterns of representation for continents, countries, municipalities and themes across nine international case study collections published by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability since 1991, this study responds to this research gap and identifies the presence of ￜusual suspectsￜ in the ICLEI case study collections, along with notable absentees. By doing so, the study contributes to policy mobilities research and literature on TMNs, by encouraging reflection and further research concerning the representation patterns influencing which municipalities and what topics are presented in discourses on sustainable development.

In this article, we investigate the nexus of green city branding and municipal climate networks. In recent decades, a number of formal transnational municipal climate networks have emerged and their membership continues to increase. In parallel, city branding that is based on green policies, has gained importance. Based on quantitative and qualitative data, we assess how and to what extent German cities use their membership in transnational municipal climate networks to communicate green city brands. In contrast to our expectations, we encountered very few indications of green city branding efforts by German cities. Our analysis shows that in general, branding considerations only play a negligible role in the involvement of cities in transnational municipal climate networks or climate policies. Instead, it seems that German cities use their membership in climate networks, to genuinely improve local climate change strategies. We therefore suggest that research on green city branding should be more sensitive to the particular context of cities and efforts should be made to unveil theunderlying motives for the communication of green policies.

In this article, we investigate the nexus of green city branding and municipal climate networks. In recent decades, a number of formal transnational municipal climate networks have emerged and their membership continues to increase. In parallel, city branding that is based on green policies, has gained importance. Based on quantitative and qualitative data, we assess how and to what extent German cities use their membership in transnational municipal climate networks to communicate green city brands. In contrast to our expectations, we encountered very few indications of green city branding efforts by German cities. Our analysis shows that in general, branding considerations only play a negligible role in the involvement of cities in transnational municipal climate networks or climate policies. Instead, it seems that German cities use their membership in climate networks, to genuinely improve local climate change strate gies. We therefore suggest that research on green city branding should be more sensitive to the particular context of cities and efforts should be made to unveil the underlying motives for the communication of green policies.