“Our job is to break down barriers and work horizontally with all those concerned.”

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 (250.000 inhabitants) has also been recognised by the European Commission as a climate leader amongst 100 climate flagship cities.

My guest today is Jean-Patrick Masson, Vice-President in charge of the energy transition in the area. He is one of the political drivers in his region as well as in the French political arena. My short talk with him opened some new thoughts on how important partnerships are and why it’s good to test things before scaling up.

As Jean-Patrick was more comfortable speaking in French, we’ve dubbed most of the interview in English thanks to the voice of my colleague Ian Turner. You may also want to listen to the full interview in French.

The EUCityCalc project supports cities in data-driven decision-making: With funding from the EU Horizon 2020 program, the project will release the European City Calculator webtool. This is an open-source instrument with which cities can plan their measures to bring CO2 emissions down to zero.

www.europeancitycalculator.eu