RECET is a collaborative project of five countries and dozens of municipalities across Europe.
The project aims to strengthen the capacity of municipalities in rural Europe and the economy to deal with the energy exchange and build energy exchange plans for the regions.
General objective
Reduce dependence on fossil fuels and accelerate the clean energy transition (CET) in five European regions and their municipalities.
-Build capacity in the administrations of municipalities and regions to accelerate local climate action,
-Establish vertical and horizontal cooperation across sectors for CET planning,
-Facilitate the development of realistic regional CET plans,
-Disseminate best practices for successful local stakeholder and community engagement and CET implementation.
Specific Objetives
Rural regions will play a crucial role when it comes to achieving the targets the EU and its nations have set for greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2030 and 2050 and for ending EU’s dependence on fossil fuels.
A key element is to provide the continent with the drastic increase of renewable energy capacity needed to radically bring fossil fuel consumption down. Wind, solar, biomass, and other energy infrastructure will be crucial, and a large portion of such installations will be built in rural regions.
Regional planning, land use, permitting, etc., will frequently be in the hands of rural communities. To accelerate the clean energy transition they need first, a good understanding of their role and which decisions must be made, and second a boost of capacity to advance planning and move to implementation.
Rural and small communities do not have access to the same human resources as urban areas and are therefore less capable of providing swift decisions due to lack of skills and competitiveness.
RECET aims to support and enhance administrations’ and stakeholders’ capacity in rural regions to play a strong role in accelerating the green transition, while ensuring local acceptance