On Wednesday, 23 June 2021, Larissa Jane Houston & Emil Nigmatullin, both researchers of the Clim:Law Research Center, held a workshop on energy communities as a solution to energy poverty in Austria in the course of the Ministerial Thematic Forum on Energy Transition, which is part of the UN High-Level Dialogue on Energy 2021. The UN-High-level Dialogue on Energy represents the first global gathering on energy under the auspices of the General Assembly since the UN Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy held in Nairobi in 1981. It seeks to provide transformational action in the first years of the SDG Decade of Action and support the implementation of the Paris Agreement. For this purpose, researchers, national governments and other stakeholders from all over the world held side events related to topics such as energy access and just & inclusive energy transitions.
The ClimLaw:Graz workshop brought together researchers and policy makers interested in the legal aspects of a just and clean energy transition, one of which is the alleviation of energy poverty. Based on their research findings, Houston and Nigmatullin explored the relevant EU and Austrian policies on energy poverty and addressed solutions for an inclusive Austrian framework on energy communities both de lege lata and de lege ferenda.