On the path to a green future: the importance of bottom-up initiatives in cities

By Bettina Päri, EUSEW Young Energy Ambassador highlights the importance of citizen engagement in the energy transition, focusing on the European Youth Energy Forum’s bottom-up.

Active citizen participation in the energy transition receives attention in the sustainable energy sector. However, when it comes to broader public awareness, the topic gets notably less limelight, and citizen participation in bottom-up projects is still considerably low. What is the reason for that and how do we address this problem?

To achieve the 100 Net-Zero-Cities target by 2030, applying bottom-up initiatives is necessary for a full-scale change. Solely implementing top-down initiatives might leave people feeling dismissed, whereas bottom-up projects offer a direct channel for people to engage, hence motivating them to initiate changes. This is important, not only in the context of cities. By implementing these, the energy transition can be done with the citizens, not to the citizens. One such bottom-up initiative I have had the chance to be involved in is the European Youth Energy Forum.

The outcomes of the European Youth Energy Forum

This October, 50 young professionals and students were selected to gather at the European Youth Energy Forum (EYEF). The Forum is organised by the European Youth Energy Network and brings together young people and other energy stakeholders to discuss the energy transition. For two months, six teams met online every week to work on six policy proposals centred around the role of cities in the energy transition. According to the participants, the most critical issues to tackle were energy poverty, community engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration, residential energy optimisation, electric mobility, financing mechanisms in the energy sector, and energy-efficient urban planning. The event itself is an example of a bottom-up initiative involving the public.

As a concrete example, during the work on the community engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration proposal, a programme was suggested, in which a position for a community energy ambassador would be created. This person would help citizens make sustainable decisions on an individual level by acting as an informative body inside the community.

Young ambassadors would help bridge the information gap between citizens and technical energy topics

Therefore, these ambassadors would help bridge the information gap between citizens and technical energy topics. This initiative specifically shows how people outside the green energy sector could participate in the transition, given also that the ambassador is chosen from within the community itself. Apart from this initiative on Community Energy Ambassadors, other proposals were focusing on: green commuting, more opportunities for residential participation, University-Powered Energy Communities, the impact potential of small cities and on sustainable urban actions. Take a closer look at all of the proposals.

As a result of this event, a position paper came to daylight. Gathering the six proposals, it was published with the title: Sustainable Cities of the Future. This report presents concrete, bottom-up solutions that can be implemented in various contexts. All six proposals were presented at this year’s Conference of Parties in Baku.

The outcomes of the Youth Energy Forum underline that to achieve net-zero cities, and to ensure a successful energy transition, we need the citizens on board. The aforementioned report is one example of how to do this in practice, but there are numerous other success-stories, as is highlighted below. By taking initiative on the grassroot level, and by involving all citizens, we take yet another step towards creating a more sustainable future for all.

This opinion editorial is produced in co-operation with the European Sustainable Energy Week 2025. See ec.europa.eu/eusew for open calls.