With the publication of the Sustainable Development Goals - the so called “SDG’s” - back in 2015, the United Nations clearly recognised the role for local authorities in the transition towards a more sustainable future.

To empower cities and communities in taking local climate and energy actions, the Commission also launched the Covenant of Mayors, a growing network of now over 7.000 local and regional authorities from across 57 countries worldwide that offers technical and methodological support to write and implement sustainable energy and climate actions plans.

Unfortunately, lack of technical expertise, insufficient budget and public support stands in the way of a successful implementation of the sustainable energy and climate action plans. And that is exactly where energy cooperatives can come into play. REScoops and municipalities are “natural allies” who both serve the same stakeholder; which is the citizen.

This report explains how energy cooperatives can successfully collaborate with local authorities including cities and municipalities. The report describes different forms of collaborations and features case studies.