How effective are neighborhood talks to ensure the uptake of climate neutrality? On the challenges to ensure transformative capacity for PEDs

Positive Energy Districts (PED) aim for districts to apply tailor-made integrated energy systems and, therefore, positively impact neighboring energy systems (IEA & EBC, 2023). For enhancing an urban sustainability transformation, not only integrated communal heat planning by professionals but also a cultural turn on the collaboration between citizens, municipality, and specialized staff is required. Transdisciplinary research on the PED Waldsee aimed to accelerate collaboration, capacity building, and co-creation through an iterative and participatory approach, one primary measure being energy district talks. The talk series has been fruitful in communicating and in- creasing understanding of citizen needs and urban planning practices but could only identify and initiate limited societal sponsorship (Kucknat et al. 2023). To genuinely assess the transformative potential of those interventions for implementing a PED and a climate-neutral district by 2045, the case study is evaluated against the criteria for urban transformative capacity derived by Wolfram et al. (2019). The analysis of qualitative and quantitative empirical data results that while the project tackled empowerment, intermediation, urban planning, and reflexivity, it still needs to overcome critical levels of those indicators. Learnings and recommendations are derived. The study critically assesses current research and practice approaches for urban energy transformation. Next to eval- uating the case study, it reflects on the criteria for transformative capacity (Wolfram et al. 2019), commenting on the kind of capacity required, the role of intermediaries, and the transferability of co-created knowledge.