It’s already 10 o’clock in the morning when I finally open my eyes. I can see the grey sky and the rigging of Lovis. It takes some time until I realize we aren’t sailing, the sails are packed and the festival flag is waving in the wind. It’s the first day of the Narva-Joesuu festival, so I stretch my bones and get up.
Most of the people are already somewhere in Narva-Joesuu, preparing the Panel discussion, which is scheduled for 2 o’clock today. Focus of the discussion is the issue of energy consumption and production in Estonia and the whole Baltic region.. Seven specialists from local NGO’s and members of the Estonian parliament give input speeches on the present energy situation and on possible solutions for the future. All speeches are held in Russian, which is quite remarkable itself and due to the fact that more than 80% of the population in this region is of Russian nationality.
Although the participants are well prepared it seems, that really discussing with each other and finding a discourse is not yet very often practiced in Estonia. It is nevertheless obvious that especially when discussing the production and consumption of energy, the establishment of a discourse is the first important step to find a solution, acceptable for all stakeholders. In this context the “Top-down/bottom-up” approaches and the realization of a bottom-up approach in Estonia is discussed controversially during the panel discussion.
The film following the speeches shows how the bottom-up approach was established in Denmark, while promoting renewable energies in the 70ies and raises the question whether this can be transferred to Estonia. Even though an agreement on this can’t be found right away, in the end all the participants conclude that the process has just started and shall be continued in the future.