Natural gas free neighborhoods: facilitating citizen participation in neighborhood developments

Researchers

• Petra Hofman

• Martijn Groenleer

In cooperation with / funded by

• Netherlands Ministry of Home Affairs

Period

• 2019

Summary

The project provides a systematic literature review on citizen participation in neighborhood developments in general and citizen participation in neighborhood energy en heat transitions specifially. First, types of citizen participation that occur in neighborhood policy making, planning and development are decribed. Second, instruments applied by local governents to facilitate citizen participation are identified. Third of all instruments, the respective goals, strengths and weaknesses are described. Fourth, general principles for designing approaches to facilitate participation related to neighborhood developments are identified. Finally, we define the fundamental questions on citizen participation in neighborhood energy en heat transitions that still need answering.

The findings contribute to the development of policy and practice in the local governance of the energy transition. In order to reach the climate goals as set in the Paris Agreement, the entire built environment in the Netherlands has to be free of natural gas use in 2050. Local governments and other actors are in need of insight in what works in the processes towards switching neighborhoods off the natural gas. How to facilitate citizen participation in these developments is an important part of the puzzle. The output of this project will be available as a part of a guide for municipalities published by the Dutch Ministry of Home Affairs.

The role of TiREG is to do a systematic review of existing scientic literature on citizen participation in neighborhood developments and make it accessible for readers from the policy domain.