The members of the European Federation of Agencies and Regions for Energy and Environment (FEDARENE) met at FEDARENE’s 2023 General Assembly, held from June 12 to 14, in Kilkenny, Ireland. The assembly agreed to incorporate AGENEX as a new member of this European network, representing local and regional energy agencies, regional administrations, and other energy-related regional and European networks.

FEDARENE is a network with more than 80 members in 25 European countries, continuously growing and developing its focus areas from its headquarters in Brussels, effectively acting as a bridge between the regions and the EU, facilitating interregional cooperation and adapting to local particularities to ensure a just and inclusive energy transition.

AGENEX, which has been collaborating with the federation for several years in various initiatives, expresses its satisfaction for effectively becoming active part of the network and also assumes its commitment to work even more closely with the rest of the members of FEDARENE, with whom it shares the same objectives and focus, promoting the energy transition and climate action in each participating territory.

The official opening session of the General Assembly was followed by an interactive workshop on climate neutral narratives in the framework of the “Energy Efficiency Watch 5” project (LIFE), in which regions and energy agencies discussed the key components of enabling narratives and their need to establish paths towards climate neutrality. Small group discussions on focus areas such as green hydrogen, large-scale financing, energy communities, etc. were also held and continued into the following day during the ENERGee-Watch best practice roundtable.

Participating in the three days of the Assembly allowed the members and other partners to connect, share their ongoing and future projects and, ultimately, strengthen cooperation within FEDARENE.

The results of the ManageEnergy survey were also presented, - EU Commission initiative on regional and local energy agencies -, noting that local and regional energy agencies are one of the largest task forces in the EU dedicated to the Energy Transition, with a total of 4.000 staff members.

A growing network

Currently, ten organizations in Spain are members of FEDARENE: Basque Energy Entity, Avila Provincial Energy Agency, Technological Institute of the Canary Islands, Castilla y León Regional Public Energy Entity, Valladolid Municipal Energy Agency, Burgos Municipal Energy Agency, the Catalan Energy Institute, Asturias Energy Foundation, the consulting firm Escan and AGENEX.