The City of Copenhagen aims to become the first carbon neutral capital in the world by 2025. Ten per cent of the total CO2-reduction target is to be achieved through energy retrofitting of existing buildings in the city. This article reports from an action research study in the urban renewal section in Copenhagen City Council where planners struggle to promote more and better energy retrofitting projects in the urban renewal scheme. The study finds that planners in fact approach green retrofitting as a ‘wicked problem’ that requires new solution strategies targeting the complexity of developing new retrofitting standards and solutions in the existing urban renewal framework. The analysis shows how planners’ strategic responses are challenged by competing worldviews concerning the role of urban renewal and the problems and potentials of green retrofitting in practice.
A major objective of Dutch energy programmes and strategies is the reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases, especially CO2. The CO2 reduction target currently being pursued by The Netherlands is 2% annually by 2020 below 1990 levels. Climate change mitigation has been receiving political attention in The Netherlands for a long time, resulting in a particularly close incorporation of energy programmes and measures into a comprehensive, long-term Dutch climate change policy programme, which started in 1998 after the country signed the Kyoto treaty.
Integrated urban renewal in The Netherlands: a critical appraisal