What conditions are needed for the energy and low-carbon transition to be socially acceptable?

Key points

• To make the energy transition socially acceptable, taking into account feedback from the planning and implementation stages, the EESC calls on all stakeholders to improve the following: independence of the process, quality and accessibility of information, freedom and diversity of participation, clarity of participation arrangements, accountability and inclusion in decision‑making, transparency, monitoring of a plan or project from cradle to grave, and also the need for the transition to be affordable and work well.
• The EESC calls on the EU to do much more to promote fair distribution and "prosumption" by means of financial incentives, accessible information and simple processes, as this is the factor with the greatest impact on local acceptance of the energy transition. The objective of the Energy Union - to put the citizens at the heart of the policy and to make sure that they can easily become energy producers and benefit from new technologies - needs to be achieved much faster. The EESC also stresses that it is important that the benefits, as much as the perceived costs of a project be fairly distributed within a community.
• The EESC would like to see consultation and even joint development with the public, particularly the social partners and civil society organisations, from the planning stage onwards, more extensive than at present, and careful coordination between objectives and planning at all levels, right up to local deployment of the transition. This is essential if we are to make progress towards greater social acceptability and achieve our energy transition objectives at a good pace.