Abstract
The slow city concept is associated with great care for the protection of the natural environment and the use of renewable energy sources. Thus, the study aimed to discuss the potential of the slow city model and the actual role of Cittaslow local governments in deploying renewable energy, based on the case study of the Polish Cittaslow Network. To achieve this aim, we carried out qualitative and quantitative data analyses, based on literature review and data for all 35 Polish Cittaslow municipalities, retrieved from: (i) development strategies (ii) a survey (iii) the Local Data Bank of Statistics Poland, (iv) the Quality of Life Synthetic Index (QLI). To process the data, we applied descriptive statistics, the Shapiro-Wilk test, the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test, and the Spearman’s rank test. Findings showed that the support for renewable energy deployment was not at a high level and did not correlate with the goals set in the Cittaslow development strategies. This was the result of a cumulation of pressing social and economic problems, which the local authorities in Poland are legally obliged to solve, while the implementation of renewable energy is not obligatory. The QLI for these municipalities was low and renewable energy was not a significant element in improving the quality of life of citizens.
Highlights
Academic Editors: Sergio Ulgiati, The European Union’s policy on renewable energy is precisely defined in many documents, of which the most important [1,2,3] established a framework for achieving the overall goals by applying effective strategies which were based on a close collaboration between the EU and its member states [4,5,6,7,8]
The attitude of local governments to investments in renewable energy was assessed based on the analysis of the development strategies of Cittaslow municipalities, retrieved from the websites of municipalities in September 2021
The findings show that 74.3% of local governments declared in their development strategies the use of renewable energy, and 68.6% identified concrete actions related to the deployment of renewable energy
Summary
Academic Editors: Sergio Ulgiati, The European Union’s policy on renewable energy is precisely defined in many documents, of which the most important [1,2,3] established a framework for achieving the overall goals by applying effective strategies which were based on a close collaboration between the EU and its member states [4,5,6,7,8] The principles of this collaboration assume that actions aimed at the deployment of renewable energy need to be implemented at the national, regional, and local levels. The slow city concept, currently evolving into a green slow city concept, is fully in line with the need to support the deployment of renewable energy at the local level, and to help in achieving the green growth of Europe It concentrates on endogenous resources, including natural ones, the needs and development of local communities, their cultural heritage, and the quality of life of present and future local generations [10,11,12]. It assumes the protection and prudent use of natural resources, ecological education, social justice, and the cultivation of local production, often using traditional and ecological technologies [13]
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