Best Chris Middlemiss Podcasts (2025)

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City Stories of citizens engagement on the energy transition - live session 50:12

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14h ago50:12

50:12

This is quite a special episode of City Stories: Our host Miriam Eisermann moderated a live session with city makers recorded on the occasion of Energy Cities’ 35th anniversary and the Annual Forum in Besançon. Tune in to the discussions around community engagement and also what role AI can or cannot play in participation and citizen engagement. In…

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Detox City Mechelen: Interview about the heat transition with Ighor Vandevyver 27:32

23d ago27:32

27:32

Mechelen has already started its heat journey a while ago. The goal? To switch to a renewable heat supply for all its buildings by 2050. But what political strategies, resources and players does it take to make such a municipal heat shift happen? Ighor Vandevyver may have some answers: Ighor belongs to the climate team of the municipality of Mechel…

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EU Peers: the Oktave success story of a regional one-stop-shop 25:24

1M ago25:24

25:24

The shortage of decent and affordable housing, both for purchase and rental, is getting deeper and deeper. Millions of homes in the EU need urgent renovations. But how can we scale up retrofitting efficiently? How can local governments best guide the citizens who would like to improve their home’s energy performance? One-stop-shops are seen as a po…

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Preparing the future in the cities of Mouscron (Belgium) and Brașov (Romania) 33:56

3M ago33:56

33:56

At the next 2025 Annual Forum, many European cities will gather in Besançon. Over two days, cities will exchange knowledge with each other and with other experts. Challenges and strategies to tackle them, concrete practices, tools with tangible outcomes, and thought-provoking discussions—this is what we have prepared for you at this event.Join us: …

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City interventions for better health and against energy poverty 35:48

5M ago35:48

35:48

This is our second and final episode on how energy poverty affects people not only financially but also through poor health. In the previous episode we looked into coping strategies and needs of people in energy poverty. In this current episode we want to discuss the different pathways we can take for making people’s lives at home healthier. This s…

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Interview on energy poverty and ill-health with Dr. Lucie Middlemiss and Beverley Searle 34:24

6M ago34:24

34:24

Since the energy crisis started a few years ago, we hear more often about energy or fuel poverty. But how often do we talk about the concrete challenges and also the coping strategies of the people affected by it? And what does it mean for people’s health when they live in very cold or very hot homes? Our guests today are two brilliant researchers …

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SCCALE episode about public acceptance in energy community projects 23:48

8M ago23:48

23:48

No risk, no fun. No risk, no failure… This is what experienced somme energy community pioneers on the Aland islands, an archipelago between Finland and Sweden. In the municipality of Kökar, an energy community around solar, urban wind and storage was meant to bring new flexibility to the island’s energy system. You will hear that this has turned in…

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SCCALE episode about community energy strategies in a small paradise in Croatia 26:44

9M ago26:44

26:44

Ugo and Franjo are, respectively, President and Manager of this energy cooperative called Apsyrtides. In this episode they tell us how community work is driving their island’s energy transition, but also how Croatian law is still not ready for it. They are about to design a voucher model in cooperation with the water management company to allow res…

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SCCALE episode about degrowth & energy communities with Chris Giotsitsas 22:20

11M ago22:20

22:20

The wind has turned again for energy communities in Greece: a recent change in law now forbids, for example, the participation of businesses. This shift leaves more than one community energy initiative puzzled. And still, community leaders keep on fighting for it as a means to bring environmental and social sustainability – ultimately also as a mea…

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SCCALE interview about an emerging heat community in The Netherlands 27:49

12M ago27:49

27:49

Today we are in Zwolle, around 1h20 drive from Amsterdam. The town of 130.000 inhabitants has a beautiful medieval centre. Today’s guest, Olaf Heinen, lives in the neighbourhood of Assendorp, more specifically in the area of Sallandsweide.This area is composed of very different types of houses and holds a very diverse group of residents. This is al…

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SCCALE episode on inclusive power: Changing how we think about cities and energy access 50:49

1y ago50:49

50:49

Some say the energy transition is a great opportunity to create a more equal society. Others are more pessimistic and predict that the transition will worsen inequalities. How does reality look like and what solutions do we already have at hand to guarantee fair access and good lives to all, no matter their income, race, religion, gender?I’m deligh…

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SCCALE episode on public procurement for energy communities 18:39

1y ago18:39

18:39

We all try to make green choices for a more sustainable world. And so do local authorities as public buyers. Through public procurement authorities buy work, goods or services. Green public procurement means those authorities use their purchasing power to support the clean energy transition. In this episode of City Stories, Efren Guillò Sansano who…

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SCCALE interview with Carlo Tacconelli from EnGreen 19:24

1+ y ago19:24

19:24

This episode is with Carlo Tacconelli. Carlo is an international energy expert and CEO of EnGreen, anItalian renewables start-up. Carlo has 16 years of experience in distributed renewable energy systems in Europe and in developing countries. Carlo shares some of that experience in this episode, with a special focus on the incredible power of energy…

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SCCALE episode about Czech energy transitions with Michal Svoboda, Sustainable Energy consultant 22:02

1+ y ago22:02

22:02

He is an ultra-runner and an ultra-communicator. When Michal Svoboda talks to Mayors about new energy practices he demonstrates both, endurance and creativity. This Czechman who used to work for the leading big energy company is now a fervent advocate of local renewable energy. Michal is an energy consultant and involved in several municipal networ…

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EUCityCalc episode with Ivan Simic, Managing Director of REA North in Croatia 17:18

1+ y ago17:18

17:18

For this episode we traveled to Croatia: From Zagreb it takes between one and two hours by car to the much smaller towns of Koprivnica, Varazdin and Virovitica in the North-East of Croatia. It's in Koprivnica, a city of 30.000 inhabitants, where today’s guest Ivan Simic lives and works. Ivan is managing director of the regional energy agency REA No…

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EUCityCalc Episode with Mantova's City Councillor Adriana Nepote 19:37

1+ y ago19:37

19:37

Mantova, West of Venice, is a beautiful city with a UNESCO protected core. Unfortunately, it is also surrounded by three artificial lakes that suffer from last century pollution. But the local administration is determined to give nature back to citizens both in and around the city centre. The city even already hosted the World Forum on Urban Forest…

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EN FRANCAIS - Entretien avec Jean-Patrick Masson, Vice-Président, Dijon Métropole 11:58

1+ y ago11:58

11:58

Mise à part son excellence culinaire, la région métropolitaine a également été reconnue par la Commission européenne comme étant un leader climatique. Elle fait partie de 100 villes phares en matière de climat. Mon invité aujourd'hui est Jean-Patrick Masson, vice-président chargé de la transition énergétique à Dijon Métropole. Jean-Patrick est l'un…

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EUCityCalc episode with Dijon's Vice-President Jean-Patrick Masson 11:13

1+ y ago11:13

11:13

What do you think of when you hear Dijon? Mustard? Wine? Certainly not energy planning, right? Yes, Dijon is located in the famous Burgundy region and it is known for quite some delicious goods. But it’s good you’ve tuned in today: food and drinks are not the only thing in which this city and its surroundings excel. The Metropolitan area has also b…

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Episode with Cristina Daniel from energy agency ENA (Portugal) 22:12

2y ago22:12

22:12

In this episode we welcome Cristina Daniel who is the managing director of the regional energy agency ENA – Energy and Environment Agency of Arrábida in Portugal. ENA connects the dots between 3 municipalities that are located within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and the agency helps those cities with their energy and environmental strategy. How is …

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Episode with the Director of Riga's energy agency Janis Ikaunieks 28:32

2y ago28:32

28:32

What is it like to be the young director of a capital city’s energy agency? I found some answers when talking with Janiks Ikaunieks. Janis leads the Riga Energy Agency in Latvia since 2 years. He told me how his agency is tackling the city’s challenges, which spots help him relax and why innovation is not always the first thing to do. Riga is known…

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Episode on the financing of renewable energy projects 26:06

2y ago26:06

26:06

When a group of citizens or civil servants with no previous experience in financing starts a renewable energy project, this can be a huge challenge to go and look for funding. Whether it is for a solar installation or a collective retrofitting project, financing any of this is a black box for many of us. We thought we should delve into the jungle o…

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Episode with Chloé Verlinden, co-founder of Brussels' first energy cooperative Brupower 22:48

2y ago22:48

22:48

An energy cooperative never pops out of nowhere. Rather, it grows silently with motivated citizens putting their heads together and imagining how they can themselves produce renewable energy. Join me and my guest Chloé Verlinden to learn about some great ways for citizens to become energy producers, both on solar and offshore wind energy. Chloé exp…

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Combining historic richness with innovative energy projects 25:30

2+ y ago25:30

25:30

Welcome to the small city of Porec on the west coast of Croatia. Porec has a rich history and culture with an old town nerved by narrow streets from Roman times. In the very city center, Venetian-style houses are sitting next to Roman temples, various gothic, baroque, and renaissance palaces, fortification walls, and towers. The town’s main sight i…

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Energy community in The Netherlands - Anatol Itten and Siward Zomer 26:30

2+ y ago26:30

26:30

The Netherlands is one of the leading countries when it comes to an energy policy taking into account many different people and sectors. The Dutch National Climate Agreement from 2019 is the best example. So, to achieve its climate and energy goals, the country needs the highest possible involvement and public ownership of green energy, including f…

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Sufficiency is a serious game 27:14

2+ y ago27:14

27:14

If you’ve been following along with this podcast in the past months or more, you’ll know that we like to dig out local initiatives that might look small for now, but that can have a big impact in the future. For this episode, we picked one of them: the Economes, an awareness raising program on energy use - from citizens for citizens.We meet Hugo an…

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Energy citizenship insights with Dr BinBin Pearce and Margot Vingerhoedt 42:15

2+ y ago42:15

42:15

Today’s guests will explore the question on how we can create a culture of energy citizenship. I sit together with two inspiring women: Dr BinBin Pearce who is researcher at TU Delft and Margot Vingerhoedt who is Head of communications, marketing and press for the Belgian cooperative Ecopower. While BinBin has been looking into the sociological dim…

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Katharina Habersbrunner about gender justice in energy communities 27:10

3y ago27:10

27:10

For this episode we wanted to know what it needs to spark such initiatives, how we can bring more women into it and what all this has to do with taking risks.That is why we invited Katharina Habersbrunner who is Head of sustainable energy and climate solutions at the non-profit network WECF, Women Engage for a Common Future. Katharina has an impres…

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Episode with Mayor and Smart City Coordinator of the City of Žďár nad Sázavou (Czech Republic) 23:22

3y ago23:22

23:22

For this episode, our podcast host Miriam Eisermann sat down with Martin Mrkos, Mayor the City of Žďár nad Sázavou in Czech Republic. He is joined by Michal Bacovsky, who is Smart City Coordinator of Zdar. The city counts 21.000 inhabitants and is one of the 10 pilot cities involved in the EUCityCalc project. After intensive thermal insulation of i…

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Getting your local administration ready for transition roadmapping process: methods and experiences. 33:56

3y ago33:56

33:56

If you want to trigger big change in a city you essentially need 2 things: a great deal of political will and people in the administration who know how to go about it. Such a massive change is underway in the cities of Brasov in Romania and in Mouscron in Belgium. Both cities have been working with the so-called "transition management" approach whi…

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Community-building around a transition roadmap: How do Brest and Valencia do that? 27:58

3y ago27:58

27:58

How do you engage individuals and local organisations in the energy transition? What does it need to make them allies in the journey towards greener cities? And what if people get tired of workshops around the city of TOMORROW? In this episode I was joined by two “activators” as I would call them: Anne-Claire Urvoas from the city of Brest where she…

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Co-creating the 2050 vision of one's city: How do Valencia and Dublin do that? 31:24

3y ago31:24

31:24

The City of Valencia and Dublin County are both on an ambitious trajectory: Not only do they aim for becoming greener and fairer cities by 2050. But also, they do push beyond their comfort zone by designing their roadmap with a big variety of stakeholders. We chatted with Jordi Peris Blanes from Valencia and Katie Harrington from the Dublin Energy …

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Pau Balcells about the data culture in the City of Barcelona 27:10

3y ago27:10

27:10

In this episode Miriam sits down with Pau Balcells from the Barcelona Data Office. Together they dive into the role of data to design, feed and assess innovative and sustainable policies. The city of Barcelona is leveraging on data for better decision-making and to become a smarter and fairer place. During the talk Pau shares why big data have beco…

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ECF collaboration lab episode: community energy, a powerful force of change in Besançon 24:00

3+ y ago24:00

24:00

In this episode, two energy experts based in the East of France join us to share their plans for an energy community in the city of Besançon. Besançon counts around 120.000 inhabitants. Anik Lehman-Tron is a renewables expert and works for the local government. Mireia Matencio is legal advisor at Opale Energies Naturelles, a renewables company base…

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ECF collaboration lab episode: Community power through virtual net metering in Athens area 24:58

3+ y ago24:58

24:58

Greece is a gifted country when it comes to renewables and it was the first EU country to have a law on energy communities all the way back in 2018. In its national energy and climate plan, the Greek government has set a target of in self-consumption by 2030. We wanted to know how this translates into concrete action on the ground and did a virtual…

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Episode with Jakuta Imširović on the challenge of a just transition in a Balkan city 22:05

3+ y ago22:05

22:05

The city of Zenica, a coal and steel producer, lies right in the center of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Jakuta talks us through the different projects of the local government to increase efficiency, including Toplana Zenica plant. She proudly presents the city's ambitions, but she also mentions the issues regarding the lack of knowledge around new energ…

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Dr. Lucie Middlemiss about energy poverty in cities 34:42

3+ y ago34:42

34:42

We talk with Lucie Middlemiss about who the energy poor are in Leeds (and elsewhere), why they should be involved in finding the right answers, but also how she thinks research can help improve energy poverty policies in cities in the UK and Europe. Lucie is Professor of Environment and Society at the School of Earth and Environment at the Universi…

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ECF collaboration episode: priority to renewables and energy poverty in Valencia 22:09

4y ago22:09

22:09

Until now, Valencia with its 800.000 inhabitants may be more known for its mild climate and lovely beaches than for its incredibly collaborative and forward-looking energy policy. In part 2 of our ECF collaboration lab series, we dive into Valencia’s impressive efforts to involve the local community in energy and climate matters. A big change of cu…

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ECF collaboration lab episode: Changing mentalities is priority #1 in Campania region 21:50

4y ago21:50

21:50

Today we’re in the South of Italy: in the region of Naples, four small municipalities team up for the energy transition so as to make their place attractive for current and future generations. UCSA, which is the official name of this group of municipalities (61.000 inhabitants), puts special emphasis on citizen-led initiatives. That is why they cam…

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ECF collaboration lab episode: Prague's first steps in community energy matters 30:41

4y ago30:41

30:41

The City of Prague has an ambitious Climate Plan. In addition to high goals for energy efficiency, this plan includes an objective of fostering the emergence of energy communities. For this episode we met Miloslav Franek from the energy management department of Prague City Hall and Tereza Mc Laughlin Vanova from the Czech Association of Local Energ…

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Episode with Verena Stoppel and Bernhard Klassen from Munich 21:37

4y ago21:37

21:37

Since 2016, Munich turned two of its neighbourhoods into a laboratory: over a bit more than 4 years, 20 million euros were invested in testing smart city solutions. That money came from the EU funded Smarter Together project. In this episode we chat with Bernhard Klassen and Verena Stoppel who both coordinated one after the other the Smarter Togeth…

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Episode about smart urban planning in Lyon with Etienne Vignali 30:14

4y ago30:14

30:14

For this episode we are in Lyon, France. Its neighbourhood called Confluence is all about transformation: What once was a logistics and industrial site with a rather bad reputation has become one of Europe’s biggest urban renewal projects. With a surface of 150 hectares, 600.000 sqm existing floor area and 1 million sqm of new buildings this urban …

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Episode about Vienna's "soft" renewal strategy with the urban planner Stephan Hartmann 32:12

4y ago32:12

32:12

The City of Vienna is often quoted as an outstanding example of people-centred urban renewal. From urban gardening to shared mobility solutions - when it comes to good governance in urban development planning hardly any other city is breaking the ground as much as Vienna does. Is this one reason why the Austrian capital is regularly rated as the wo…

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Episode about Dublin's big transition with Donna Gartland from CODEMA 30:32

4y ago30:32

30:32

Dublin counts half a million residents. Its energy agency CODEMA is in the early stages of redesigning the city’s energy landscape by involving the local community. The challenge is huge: How do you decarbonise a capital city that is very much driven by the fast-growing digital economy? Today I talk with Donna Gartland who is heading the Dublin ene…

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Episode about new narratives - with Britt and Laura from Carbon Coop 39:32

4+ y ago39:32

39:32

The energy and climate challenge is so big that it requires everybody to be involved. New ways of communicating are needed. What are the best means to shape new narratives and, in the end, to make people want to engage in changing the energy system? In this episode we talked with Laura Williams and Britt Jurgensen from CarbonCoop: one is a trained …

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The ECF collaboration lab episode: community energy from scratch 9:03

4+ y ago9:03

9:03

2020 was a tough year and never before has the need for local resilience and solidarity been stronger. One extraordinary means for increasing solidarity while making places stronger are renewable energy communities. Since recently renewable energy communities are legally defined and protected by EU legislation. “Community energy” or “community powe…

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Episode with Sara Capuzzo and Claudia Carani from Modena about local energy communities 35:47

4+ y ago35:47

35:47

We have interviewed two amazing women and we have talked with them about the right political triggers for renewables in Italy, about the place of women in the sector and I even learned during our conversation what ethical energy means. Our interviewees were Sara and Claudia: Sara Capuzzo is the President of enostra, which is a major Italian renewab…

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Episode with Juan Eguidazu and Javier Zardoya from Pamplona about renewables and Covid 26:39

4+ y ago26:39

26:39

Since almost 20 years the region of Navarra in the North of Spain pioneers with wind and more and more with solar energy. Now, building an energy community with the regional capital Pamplona as a partner means getting to the next level. This energy community is part of the local government’s climate change strategy for 2030. I wanted to gain a very…

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Episode with Jacqui Cullen and Gerard Pol Gili about Strasburg's first energy community 26:44

4+ y ago26:44

26:44

In this episode we want to understand how a very young energy community in Strasburg, in the North-East of France, came into being. Where did it all begin with this cooperative called the Brasseurs d’Energie (which means Energy Brewers)? What role did the city council play? And how challenging was the cooperation between citizens and the administra…

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Episode with Dimos Ispikoudis from Komotini on locally-owned renewables 25:25

4+ y ago25:25

25:25

Since 2018, a new Greek legislation allows local authorities to be an energy producer. In this episode, we’ll have a look at how much this legislation was a gamechanger for Komotini, a local government in the very North-Eastern edge of Greece.The city counts around 60.000 inhabitants and we were joined by one of them: Dimos Ispikoudis. Dimos works …

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Ep.30: Farewells and Reunions, strengthening relationships 53:44

5y ago53:44

53:44

We talk to Darin Elkins- LCSW who specializes in relationships and family therapy. He discusses the importance of arrival and departure with your partner. We also discuss mindset when transitioning from station-life to home-life.By Chris Middlemiss