The Parma RAP addresses the Action Plan for sustainable energy and climate of the city of Parma (SECAP). This strategic policy instrument provides for actions to achieve an overall reduction in emissions of 46% by 2030 thanks to an increase in the energy produced by RES and a sharp reduction in energy consumption in the public, private and industrial sectors. More in detail, the Parma RAP accelerates and makes operational two main strategies that the Municipality of Parma launched with its first SEAP in 2014 and with the new SECAP in 2021: a) Sustainable Schools - the improvement of the energy class in primary schools and middle schools in the municipality of Parma and an active involvement and awareness of school students. B) Sustainable residential construction - the improvement of the energy class in residential buildings.
One Stop Shop, Energy Community and Young People into climate planning are indeed the focal points of the Parma Regional Action Plan which should synergize the strategies of the Parma SECAP. Energy transition requires the integration of many disciplines (environmental planning, water management, and sustainable energy production, others), a more participated policymaking, and a pro-active role of the citizenship. In this framework, health protection and citizens' quality of life become more and more central elements. Therefore, the required transformation cannot be limited just to the technological development, but requires radical changes in the economic models (towards an economy that is increasingly circular) and in the behavior of citizens: this represents the bigger and more demanding challenge because it is played on a social level.
Therefore, through POTEnT, the city of Parma aims to identify new tools and approaches to mobilize citizens and engage stakeholders as active players in energy transition. As such, the first action in Parma’s RAP intends to bring young people into climate planning by creating ad hoc material for school students to create an understanding of the City Council’ strategies for energy transition. In addition, technicians from the energy office of the Council organize co-design sessions in the laboratory “ImagineParma 2030”, leading young people to express wishes and desires on their ideal city in 2030 through gamification. The second action concerns the One Stop Shop, which is a link between policy makers and citizens supporting bottom-up retrofitting interventions. However, through the experience of Parma’s One Stop Shop, it is clear that citizens face several barriers in their journey to renovate their apartments: technical competences, legal knowledge gaps, and time restrictions. Through POTEnT, the Council will amplify the range of services and competences of One Stop Shop to: a) create additional layers of support for citizens, b) increase the number of stakeholders of the OSS, c) develop financial mechanisms to self-finance the structure. To do that, a new platform will be created linking the OSS with its stakeholders (escos, banks, building companies, professional orders, SMEs). This collaboration will be strengthened by signing a protocol to create a stronger local network of experts on energy efficiency, renewable energy, legal and economic fields. Furthermore, the members of the protocol will develop training packages after a need assessment.
The third action of Parma’s RAP aims at creating a feasibility study to co-design the first energy community in Parma. The nature will be strictly social, in the sense that the energy produced by the 20kWp PV plant will be given either to the headquarter of a third sector association either to a cultural center.
With these spheres of activities Parma’s RAP aims to accelerate a transition towards a Prosumer Culture in which the City Council is an accelerator of local energy transition. Here we go for phase 2 of the project.
