2ISECAP project, within its first half period, has developed all the analysis required in order to: (a) study the capacity of formal plans and policies to activate and work with local energy initiatives and coalitions for implementing proposed actions in the various municipalities considered, (b) perform an international comparative study of best practices and ongoing work on participatory and integrated sustainable energy planning on a local level, (c) analyze local and regional community initiatives and larger societal coalitions focused on energy transition and climate actions, in order to identify how they came to be, function and perform, their existing relations with formal governments, formal plans and policies, and how these relations affect the barriers and accommodation factors for their scale-up, (d) examine the development of institutional capacity (i.e. organizational, knowledge, instruments, leadership skills) within local/regional government and its relationship with social capacity (i.e. networks and assets that facilitate citizen awareness, private sector involvement and cooperation for mutual benefit), (e) identify institutional capacity measures, including governance structures and tools to be considered and provided by local/regional governments to support energy and climate bottom-up initiatives and coalitions and (f) study the suitability of existing urban management approaches and spatial planning tools for introducing/facilitating sustainability and energy transition, in different area-based characteristics and in adapted ways to specific local needs, socio-economic conditions and environmental constraints.
Based on this analysis the project is currently working on the development of the Holistic Approach to SECAP Planning that roots SECAPs in the specificity of local and regional spatial and socio-economic conditions, enhancing its links with spatial planning in every local society. This approach is based on a multi-level, interdisciplinary co-creation process, supported on a local level as a new planning framework to foster integrated local action.
