From Idea to Action: Engaging local authorities in energy transition

Energy transition reflecting the idea of a system change for a sustainable energy provision is on the Dutch innovation agenda for several years now. Energy transition has been launched as a new route towards a sustainable energy supply. Seven so-called transition paths have been distinguished as a next step on the transition agenda. To date, energy transition is basically a set of ideas and clusters of networks at distance of “business as usual” discussing future promises, expectations and routes. The big challenge is to widen the ideas and practices to get transition into every day practice of industry and governments. The paper suggests ways how to connect the transition arena of ideas with the local arena of action. The paper shows that the core idea of energy transition – coherence – can be translated to the area-based jurisdiction of local authorities and connected to municipal their tasks and responsibilities in energy.