Ionut Moldovan2; Sergiu Gherghina1; 1 University of Glasgow, UK; 2 Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Discussion
Participatory budgeting has been intensely studied along the lines of their functioning, empowerment dimension, and effective impact on the local communities through the accepted project. However, we know very little about the potential of participatory budgeting with respect to energy developments and changes although an increasing number of projects on energy is funded. This is relevant especially in the context of climate change discussions in many countries. This paper addresses this gap in the literature and analyzes the extent to which people consider that participatory budgeting can help with the energy transition in their cities. We use data from 48 semi-structured interviews in January-February 2024 in four large cities in Romania with different experience in the use of participatory budgeting. The results of our inductive thematic analysis show that many citizens see participatory budgeting as a potential driver to move the cities away from the traditional approach to energy governance.
