Let Communities Lead

A global advocacy initiative for community energy transitions

Community-based and inclusive renewable energy systems in underserved and marginalized communities are advancing rapidly around the world. The global initiative “Let communities lead” is an advocacy effort for increased empowerment, local ownership, and self-governance capacities. The initiative is launched by the Center for Energy and Society of the Arizona State University (ASU) and the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Locally planned, clean energy investments in communities are long-term investments in food security, socioeconomic opportunities, health and shelter, climate adaptation, community resilience, security and human rights, democracy, and much more. This can be achieved by empowering communities to take the lead in planning their energy futures.

Therefore, the initiative calls on the global leadership gathering at COP26 to enable substantive progress on community energy transitions.

Collection of best practices from all over the world

The “Let communities lead” initiative will collect stories from the ground in order to create a repository of best practices and design principles of community energy systems. The stories will narrate challenges and barriers communities have faced and overcome in the process of generating social and economic as well as ecological benefits according to multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Stories are welcome from all regions/countries and from individuals or entities with direct knowledge of community-based energy projects.

Worldwide action network

The global coalitions formed through this initiative will be the launching pad for a funding proposal to create a worldwide action network for sustainable community futures. We want to facilitate knowledge sharing, rapid exchange of expertise and skills, and the potential for formulating and deploying community energy projects at a global scale.

We will provide information through:

  • a web page as a continually updated database of stories from practice,
  • a short report with stories, distilled key lessons and insights for strategic actions,
  • a virtual launch event to catalyze the conversation to coincide with the COP26 meeting.





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Let Communities Lead: Stories and lessons on grassroots energy initiatives for sustainable futures by www.letcommunitieslead.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.




















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