Living near a wind turbine or solar farm can feel like a burden. Energy cooperatives can offer something in return: community benefits that flow back to the local area. Community benefit funds are an instrument for this: around 30 cooperatives distribute tens to hundreds of thousands of euros annually. Cooperatives grapple with questions: how are benefits allocated, who decides, and who profits. Maastricht University and Klimaatstichting HIER bring together managers and beneficiaries of three funds. Using fund portraits, participants reflect on governance over locally generated energy and explore new forms of decision-making. Insights are shared with energy cooperatives nation-wide.
Economic transition: the costs and benefits of (in)action
What does an economy look like that focuses not on GDP growth, but on well-being, ecology and justice?
What is needed to achieve this sustainable economy and how is our current economic system holding back these changes?
We are exploring these questions from a practical perspective as part of the program: ‘Economic transition: the costs and benefits of (in)action’. Together with partners from academia, the professional sector, government and social movements, we are working to shape this transition, set it in motion and anchor it. In doing so, we actively apply knowledge in practice to bring about a transformation of our current economic system.