Municipal energy policy constitution and integration process to establish sustainable energy systems - a case of the Slovenian municipality

The way forward clearly orients us towards the decarbonisation of energy systems. Sustainable energy systems ensure fewer burdens on the environment and consequently provide success when fighting climate change. Energy policy provides support in addressing the present energy challenges. Municipal policy has often been neglected, with greater emphasis being concentrated at the centralised level. In addition, another identified problem has been the insufficient quality of the municipal policy performance with lack of acknowledging various features within the municipality. Therefore, the presented paper focuses on the constitution of municipal energy policies that include all aspects of municipalities' energy systems and lead towards less environmentally burdened energy systems. The main objective is to enhance sustainable development within municipalities through constitution and integration of suitable municipal energy policies. The proposed paper presents an entirely inclusive process for a municipal energy policy's institutional, implementation and evaluation phases. Municipal energy policy has to enable maximum efficiency of energy systems by implementing customised targets and measures. This novel methodology for integrated municipal energy policy constitution and integration has, in fact, been applied within the Podlehnik municipality, representing one of the small municipalities in Slovenia. This work proposes an important step towards formalising a municipal energy policy constitution and integration process.