Abstract:

Over the past years, the global challenges to renewable energy (RE) development have been driven by a broad set of environmental and social trends, such as global energy transition, environmental quality, climate protection and social dynamics of RE development. To address these challenges and to position for a global RE development, cooperation between the Government, private institutions and civil society, remains imperative. Indeed, the participation of civil society is critical to the energy transition, especially to projects planning and implementation. The awareness and the public support for RE development are greater than ever before. The Tunisian Government tries to develop a larger and an accurate vision to engage Civil Society Associations (CSAs) in the debate of the energy futures of Tunisia. The promotion of RE remains an important purpose, especially as the current situation is marked by the continued surge in oil prices on the international market and the increase of domestic consumption. This research describes CSAs’ actions to promote RE and identifies motivations and barriers to their activities. Indeed, despite the increasing literature on RE, the empirical research on it remains scarce. This paper relies on a qualitative research to explore the actions, motivations and barriers to Tunisian CSAs.