Smart Cities Initiative: How to Foster a Quick Transition towards Local Sustainable Energy Systems
January 2011
This work has been funded by the European Commission FP7 project THINK.
Executive Summary:
Cities represent simultaneously a challenge and an opportunity for climate change policy.
Chapter 1 introduces the fundamentals of energy in cities, distinguishing between cities as energy systems and energy actors. Cities are the place where most energy services are needed because urbanization is closely linked to high population densities and concentration of economic activities and production (energy demand). Cities are ultimately also responsible for the use of energy resources so that they increasingly pose a challenge to the environment and to the quality of life.
Chapter 2 discusses the likely elements needed for energy in smart cities, including: 1// opportunities within the building stock (such as thermal retrofit of the envelope and the use of solar thermal for domestic hot water); 2// transport and mobility opportunities (such as the shift from individual to collective modes of transport); and 3// city management opportunities (such as the shift among energy carriers).
Chapter 3 explains why the sustainable measures and technologies from Chapter 2 have not yet been implemented in every city, distinguishing between market and institutional failures. The main market failures are the economical, informational and behavioural failures that prevent cities as public actors and private urban actors to act towards a local sustainable energy system. The main institutional failures can be simplified into “not in my term” and “not my business” and apply to city authorities as institutions.
Chapter 4 investigates how the difficulties and barriers from Chapter 3 can be overcome with a local approach, distinguishing between three levels of city smartness. City pioneers have emerged thanks to a combination of local circumstances and interventions by higher levels of government, and that a local approach also has its limitations.
Chapter 5 proposes an organization of the Smart Cities Initiative based on the evidence collected in the previous chapters. A portfolio of smart cities should be created and that the cities in this portfolio should be given the “institutional flexibility” (i.e. the necessary human and financial resources) to conceive and implement concepts of city smartness, focusing on the third level of city smartness, i.e. an integrated approach. Guidelines are provided for the organization of the call that the European Commission intends to organize, including reporting requirements, rewarding performance and innovation, and criteria to take into account when selecting
winners.
The report concludes that city smartness essentially stands for integrating concepts of sustainability in every policy decision that is made on the local level (where timing is also of crucial importance) so that cities will become institutions that accelerate rather than slow down the uptake of sustainable energy measures. The report finally provides recommendations for the organization of the Smart Cities Initiative and recommendations to increase the impact of the initiative.
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