An analysis of multi-level collaborative initiatives on sustainable energy in Europe

Multi-Level Governance (MLG) is a necessary framework for climate protection and sustainable energy policies, since no single actor or policy sector can fulfil alone climate and sustainable energy goals (EC, 2013). Planning and implementation of sustainable energy actions need better collaboration and coordination between local, regional and national governance levels. Identifying cooperation mechanisms, as well as the success factors for effective cooperation, can contribute to overcome barriers and enable such integration and policy coordination. This paper aims to contribute to the knowledge on MLG models with reference to a wide data set of real cases, based on data from the Coopenergy project, co-funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe programme.