Four pathways for energy citizenship initiatives to contribute to a more democratic European energy system

The European Green Deal aims to put citizens at the heart of the European energy transition. Yet, their participation often falls short in terms of political involvement and self-governance. In contrast, the imaginary of energy democracy envisions democratising the energy system by involving citizens as political actors and assigns a key role to collectively organised energy citizenship initiatives in achieving this goal. However, it remains elusive how such initiatives contribute to democratisation processes and under what conditions of polycentric governance they achieve to do so. A Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of 14 energy citizenship initiatives in seven European countries shows that these contributions are diverse and characterised by national contexts. They range from strengthening local capacities for action to ownership and co-determination of energy infrastructure and direct participation of citizens in political decision-making processes. Four pathways of specific polycentric governance configurations are identified along which such contributions were achieved.