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Karin Thalberg, Marianna Markantoni, Ariane Debourdeau, “Towards a European energy transition driven by citizen action”, EnergyPROSPECTS, European Commission Grant Agreement No. 101022492, October 2023

Energy citizenship, understood as various forms of civic involvement and engagement that pertain to the development of more sustainable and democratic energy systems and transitions, is a key lever for a just energy transition in Europe. It can be practised at dierent levels of action and through dierent constellations of actors (see illustration below¹), related to energy production, consumption and governance. The fourth EnergyPROSPECTS synthesis brief took stock of the diversity of energy citizenship practices that exist through the 596 initiatives that the project team mapped across Europe². Importantly, these initiatives do not exist in a vacuum. This fifth synthesis brief underlines the importance of intermediary actors and intermediation for energy citizenship and highlights the rich ecosystem of actors that enable and provide support for energy citizenship initiatives³. To that end, intermediaries and intermediation are a central part of emerging ‘new’ forms of governance aimed at accelerating the energy transition by helping energy citizenship initiatives to achieve their goals.