Sremski Karlovci was the center of good energy on October 3rd 2017. On that day, The Network of Good Energy was founded – a voluntary platform dedicated to applying and sharing good practice and solutions related to local energy policy. Cities of Šabac and Pirot, as well as Vrbas Municipality, were the first ones to sign the Good Energy Charter along with founding members of the Network – Belgrade Open School, RES Foundation and Vojvodina Environmental Movement. 

The Network of Good Energy was founded in a Conference that gathered about 100 representatives of cities and municipality, civil and business sector, all in search for sustainable local energy solutions. Coming to the Conference, many of them were wondering – what does ‘Good Energy’ actually stand for. According to the Good Energy Charter, the basic principles define good energy as locally available, environment – friendly, planned in a long term, owned by local community, efficiently used, defined through transparent process involving all relevant stakeholders, renewable, contributing to greenhouse-gas emissions cutting - and able to provide quality heating to households in Serbia while being affordable and not imposing a threat to public health.The Good Energy, as defined through these principles, is distributed through partnership of all sectors. 

The Network of Good Energy is a platform serving to cities’ and municipalities’ administrations in meeting the challenges of local energy policy such as public lighting, district heating, developing consumption and savings plans, etc. The Network is gathering local municipality units which already have results and show determination to set ambitions goals of local energy policy and share their experience. The Network serves to connect them with dedicated champions of sustainable development from civil society with business sector and development partners, who all have knowledge and resources to support development of optimal solutions at the local level. 

Through Network of Good Energy, Belgrade Open School continues its work on supporting local authorities in establishing energy management system and introducing sustainable solutions in local energy sector. 

The Conference was organized with the support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Heinrich Boell Stiftung, as well as CSOnnect program, implemented by Regional Center for Environment and funded by Swedish International Development Agency. 

Author of the photo: Belgrade Open School