A key aspect of the sustainable energy transition is a shift in the current paradigm about citizen participation – away from a predominantly consumerist and towards a multidimensional conceptualisation of citizen engagement in which citizens are considered in their capacity as political subjects, producers as well as consumers.

Energy citizenship is a complex and dynamic social, political and economic phenomenon which reflects the understanding that citizens ought to be at the centre of the energy transition. The operationalisation and uptake of the notion of energy citizenship has the potential to enable citizens to be actively involved in energy transition processes.

This report looks into several main groups of factors impacting the emergence, exercise and deepening of energy citizenship, namely:

a) legal and regulatory framework(s);

b) gender-related factors;

c) institutional and socio-political factors;

d) socio-economic factors; and

e) socio-cultural factors. It examines the effects of those factors and their relative importance in the eight DIALOGUES countries – Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and Türkiye.

Structural and individual-level factors are discussed in parallel in order to understand how structural elements create the context for individual-level factors.