Climate strategies and sustainable economies in Europe ... · Climate strategies and sustainable economies in Europe smart cities: drivers for energy management and quality of life

Climate strategies and sustainable economies in Europe smart cities: drivers for energy management and quality of life

“Climate strategies post COP21: smart and low carbon cities”

Edoardo Croci IEFE – Bocconi University

Firenze, 2 July 2016

Sustainable Development Goals - Cities

On September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted a set of 17 sustainable development goals as part of a new sustainable development agenda.

SDG 11 is dedicated to cities: “Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, referring to the following topics: housing, sustainable transport systems, inclusive urbanization, natural heritage protection, air quality and waste management, green and public spaces, links with peri-urban and rural areas and the need for integrated policies and plans.

The role of cities in the Paris Agreement

At the UNFCCC COP21 in Paris in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the the Paris Agreement. To limit global warming well below 2°C by 2100. The Agreement acknowledges the importance of engagements of all levels of government and various actors in addressing climate change. An effective implementation of NDCs included in the Agreement will therefore need to comprehend a multi-stakeholder and multi-level approach. Frameworks and MRV tools accounting for GHG reduction actions occurring at diverse scales are strongly needed for overall system integrity.

New Urban Agenda

The New EU Urban Agenda, approved on May 30th 2016, addresses 12 urban challenges.

The New Urban Agenda to be approved in Quito in October 2016 at the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) will link sustainable urbanization with development, providing a framework to design policies and strategies that can contribute to provide and manage human settlements in a sustainable way.

Smart City and urban sustainability

Smart City key dimensions are strictly related to sustainable urban policies.

Source: TU Wien, University of Ljbjana, TU Delft, 2007

Smart and Low Carbon City

Smart City

“A city becomes smart when the human and social capital investments, the traditional (transport) and modern (ICT) infrastructures, foster sustainable economic growth and an high quality of life, through an efficient management of natural resources and a participatory governance” (Nijkamp et al., 2009).

Low Carbon City

A Low Carbon City ensures high living standards while increasing the (carbon) efficiency with which goods and services are produced and used. This implies the reduction of direct and indirect city’s carbon emissions.

The Smart City and Low Carbon City dimensions share several key elements, such as economic and environmental efficiency, quality of living aspects, the role of technological and social innovation. To increase the synergies these two dimensions should be integrated, also at policy level, through the adoption of a strategic urban plan.

The role of cities in climate change mitigation

Cities contribution to global GHG emissions, World Energy Outlook, 2014

Even if there is uncertainty in the estimation, according to several studies cities are responsible for high shares of global energy consumption and GHG emissions, as reported in the IPCC last report (AR5, 2014):

0 5 10 15 20 25

DenverChicago

Los AngelesToronto

New York City

LondonPrague

GenevaParis-IDF

Barcelona

Buenos AiresRio de Janeiro

Sao Paulo

ShanghaiTianjinBeijing

BangkokJakarta

AmmanManila

Cape TownDar es Salam

Electricity

Heating & IndustrialFuelsIndustrial Processes

Ground Transportation

Waste

Aviation

Per Capita GHG Emissions (tCO2e/capita)

Asia

Africa

S. America

Europe

N. America

8

Urban GHG Emissions (~2006)

Source: Kennedy et al., 2014

Potential of cities contribution to global mitigation

Source: SEI, 2014

Mitigation options in developed and developing cities

Mitigation options vary by city characteristics and development levels.

Major options available for rapidly developing cities include shaping their urbanization and infrastructure development trajectories.

For mature cities, mitigation options mainly lie in urban regeneration (compact, mixed-use development that shortens journeys, promotes transit/walking/cycling, adaptive reuse of buildings) and rehabilitation/conversion to energy-efficient buildings (Seto et al., 2014).

10

World non-state climate initiatives. City and regional-level initiatives

Source: UNEP (2015) Climate Commitments of subnational actors and business

504

287

128 44

The “Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy” is an initiative of the European Commission, which is the evolution of the previous Covenant of Mayors, aimed to support the implementation of the 20-20-20 energy and climate EU targets at local level. The covenant currently involves more than 6.837 municipalities (as of 30 June 2016). New signatories commit to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 40% by 2030 and to adopt an integrated approach to tackling mitigation and adaptation to climate change, by elaborating a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) outlining the key actions they plan to undertake.

Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (CoM)

13

Intended emission reduction potential of categories of actions in a sample of 124 SEAPs (cities over 100.000 inhabitants)

Buildings

Source: IEFE Bocconi-JRC elaboration

Transport Local electricity production

0 1 2 3 4 5

A16_Integrated action (allabove)

A19_Other

Z100_Purchase of greenenergy without production

A11_Building envelope

A13_Energy efficiency inspace heating and hot

water

A14_Energy efficientlighting systems

0,0 0,5 1,0 1,5 2,0 2,5 3,0

A41_Cleaner/efficientvehicles

A42_Electric vehicles (incl.infrastructure)

A43_Modal shift to publictransport

A44_Modal shift to walking& cycling

A45_Car sharing/pooling

A46_Improvement oflogistics and urban freight

transport

0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0 4,0

A55_Combined Heatand Power

A57_Other

A52_Wind power

A54_Biomass powerplant

A53_Photovoltaics

A53M_Photovoltaics_municipal

Intended emission reduction for each category of action on total emissions of the sample (%)

CO2 emission drivers assessment in European cities (over 100.000 inhab.)

Source: IEFE Bocconi-JRC elaboration

Proportion of policy instruments for urban development by level of government

Source: LSE Cities (2014)

16

Modes of urban climate governance: • self-governing is the capacity of the local authority to govern its activities through

reorganization, institutional innovation and investments. It is associated with the role of the local government as consumer;

• governing by authority refers to regulations and sanctions the city government can set (e.g. building regulations; traffic restriction). It is based on the authoritative powers of the local government ;

• governing by provision takes place through the delivery of particular forms of services and resources. This is accomplished through infrastructure and financial means (es. waste treatment collection and treatment services; public transportation)

• governing through enabling refers to the role of local government in coordinating and facilitating partnerships with private actors and encouraging community engagement

(Alber, Kern, 2008)

Policies and instruments of Local Governments

Urban climate policies in a multi-level context

Cities’ governments do no act in isolation. They develop climate policies in a complex multi-level context where different levels (international, European, national, regional and local) interact. The COOPENERGY project (2013-2016) funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe programme of the European Commission, identified several cooperation models in sustainable energy strategies between regional and local authorities, which differ according to the type of strategy developed; the role of national, regional, local authorities, energy agencies and other subjects involved in the development and implementation of the plan; the binding or voluntary nature of the plan. Promoting collaboration between sub-national governments and re-aligning policies developed at different levels can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of energy and climate policies and enhance their implementation.

17

Thank you

[email protected]