Sustainable and Smart Cities Florence School of Transnational Governance

Overview

The Sustainable and Smart Cities program from Florence School of Transnational Governance  will focus on three areas where cities can be particularly impactful: the uptake of renewable energy, improving the energy efficiency of Europe’s building stock, electricity metering and distribution networks.

Through this course, we provide answers to the following questions:

• What do recent EU energy law and policy reforms mean for decision-makers at the municipal level?

• How can cities participate in shaping the EU’s energy policy priorities and their implementation?

Key Facts

Action at the local and municipal level will be crucial for the realisation of the European Union’s ambitious, socially just and economy-wide decarbonisation objectives, which are currently encapsulated in the European Green Deal policy. Local and regional authorities will deliver an estimated 70% of climate mitigation measures, and are keenly aware of their role and responsibility in implementing the Green Deal. Yet, actors at the municipal level still face several barriers to transition, often arising from misalignment between city, regional, and national authorities.  

The technological and regulatory complexity of EU energy sector policies and their implementation and applicability at city level present a particular challenge in this regard, made even more significant by the recent, substantial changes to much of the EU’s energy law and policy.