scholarly journals Global typology of urban energy use and potentials for an urbanization mitigation wedge

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (20) ◽  
pp. 6283-6288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Creutzig ◽  
Giovanni Baiocchi ◽  
Robert Bierkandt ◽  
Peter-Paul Pichler ◽  
Karen C. Seto
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Transport Costs ◽  
Urban Energy Use ◽  
Urban Energy ◽  
Transport Energy Use

The aggregate potential for urban mitigation of global climate change is insufficiently understood. Our analysis, using a dataset of 274 cities representing all city sizes and regions worldwide, demonstrates that economic activity, transport costs, geographic factors, and urban form explain 37% of urban direct energy use and 88% of urban transport energy use. If current trends in urban expansion continue, urban energy use will increase more than threefold, from 240 EJ in 2005 to 730 EJ in 2050. Our model shows that urban planning and transport policies can limit the future increase in urban energy use to 540 EJ in 2050 and contribute to mitigating climate change. However, effective policies for reducing urban greenhouse gas emissions differ with city type. The results show that, for affluent and mature cities, higher gasoline prices combined with compact urban form can result in savings in both residential and transport energy use. In contrast, for developing-country cities with emerging or nascent infrastructures, compact urban form, and transport planning can encourage higher population densities and subsequently avoid lock-in of high carbon emission patterns for travel. The results underscore a significant potential urbanization wedge for reducing energy use in rapidly urbanizing Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

scholarly journals Strategies to Improve Urban Energy Efficiency for Urban Resilience

2021 ◽  
Vol 1203 (2) ◽  
pp. 022020
Author(s):  
Yalim Gültekin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Spatial Strategies ◽  
Urban Energy

Abstract Greenhouse gas (GHG), which is a determining factor in climate change is a result of human activities, namely climate change is human-caused (anthropogenic). Cities, where 60% of the world's population of approximately 7.3 billion living today, are responsible for 60-80% consumption of energy, which is the lifeblood of intense human activities, thus at least 70% of GHG. Nevertheless, cities are the cause of climate change and other global environmental problems, as well as the innovation centres and laboratories to deal with their impact. With climate change becoming more explicit and active in the 21st century, researchers, governments and international institutions question cities’ strength/vulnerability against these problems, especially their energy production and consumption patterns that cause GHG, and they anticipate that urban resilience be the motivating force for urban policies. The widespread and effective use of renewable energy is regarded as an influential tool against climate change. However, this should be endorsed by spatial strategies. In the light of this approach, this study evaluates the urban form, building design and production technologies that are focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy use.

scholarly journals Including Social Housing Residents in the Energy Transition: A Mixed-Method Case Study on Residents' Beliefs, Attitudes, and Motivation Toward Sustainable Energy Use in a Zero-Energy Building Renovation in the Netherlands

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michèlle Bal ◽  
F. Marijn Stok ◽  
Carolien Van Hemel ◽  
John B. F. De Wit
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Sustainable Energy ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Sustainable Value ◽  
Urban Energy

Reducing household energy use in social housing buildings can substantially contribute to mitigating global climate change. While municipalities and social housing corporations are willing to invest in sustainable renovations and innovations, social housing residents' inclusion in the sustainable energy transition lags behind. This pilot study explored social housing residents' attitudes toward sustainability and sustainable renovation of their apartment building, as well as (factors underlying) their motivation toward two specific sustainable behaviors. Semi-structured interviews, containing both open- and close- ended questions, were conducted with 20 residents of one social housing building that was due for renovations. Results showed that respondents were concerned about climate change, including environmental justice beliefs, typically already engaged in various sustainable behaviors, and were motivated to add sustainable behaviors to their repertoire after the renovation. Yet, perceived social norms were not always supportive of behaving sustainably and respondents sometimes failed to recognize the sustainable value of these behaviors. Furthermore, while respondents were more positive than negative about the sustainable renovation, they nevertheless listed many concerns and problems regarding the renovation process, including procedural justice concerns. This small-scale study provided important insights into barriers and facilitators of the sustainable energy transition among social housing residents, who are at risk of lagging behind in the sustainable urban energy transition. Findings underline the importance of including residents in the sustainable renovation process through engagement, communication, and co-creation.

Energy Management, Sustainability, and Ethics: An Islamic Perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-99
Author(s):  
Mohammad Khalil Elahee
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Management ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Environmental Ethic ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Islamic Perspective ◽  
Environmental Objectives

The challenge of global climate change requires a radical change in our understanding of environmental issues, for its causes are linked to our dominant development model and its impact is significant at the grassroots level. Addressing energy production and consumption remains at the heart of any feasible solution. In this article, I define energy management (EM) as a systemic and systematic endeavor to optimize energy use through engineering and management tools in order to achieve political, economic, and environmental objectives. I also discuss what underpins EM’s ethical dimension, focusing on sustainability, and critically analyze the Islamic perspective to elaborate a value-based, universally acceptable, realistically applicable, and objective environmental ethic. By using EM as a vehicle toward sustainability, hence addressing climate change, I evaluate the outcomes of such a radical change in our understanding of environmental issues. I conclude by investigating whether a difference in vision with regard to faith and the hereafter can hinder a common engagement. Evidence is also sought from relevant specialist studies by non-Muslims, in which such Islamic principles as ordering the good and prohibiting the evil, ijmā‘, istiḥsān, istiṣḥāb, or istiṣlāḥhave been implemented to a given extent in all but name.

Urban Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in East Asia and Pacific

2013 ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Dejan R. Ostojic ◽  
Ranjan K. Bose ◽  
Holly Krambeck ◽  
Jeanette Lim ◽  
Yabei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Urban Energy Use ◽  
Urban Energy

scholarly journals The Scale-Dependent Behaviour of Cities: A Cross-Cities Multiscale Driver Analysis of Urban Energy Use

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yves Bettignies ◽  
Joao Meirelles ◽  
Gabriela Fernandez ◽  
Franziska Meinherz ◽  
Paul Hoekman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Use ◽  
Industrial Ecology ◽  
Power Laws ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
World Population ◽  
Urban Energy Use ◽  
Urban Energy ◽  
Urban Territories ◽  
Driver Analysis ◽  
Energy Use Intensity

Hosting more than half of the world population, cities are currently responsible for two thirds of the global energy use and three quarters of the global CO2 emissions related to energy use. As humanity becomes more urbanized, urban systems are becoming a major nexus of global sustainability. Various studies have tried to pinpoint urban energy use drivers in order to find actionable levers to mitigate consumption and its associated environmental effects. Some of the approaches, mainly coming from complexity science and industrial ecology disciplines, use city-scale data to find power-laws relating to different types of energy use metrics with urban features at a city-scale. By doing so, cities’ internal complexity and heterogeneity are not explicitly addressed. Moreover, to our knowledge, no studies have yet explicitly addressed the potential scale dependency of such drivers. Drivers might not be transferable to other scales and yield undesired effects. In the present study, power-law relations are examined for 10 cities worldwide at city scale and infra-city scale, and the results are compared across scales. Relations are made across three urban features for three energy use intensity metrics. The results show that energy use drivers are in fact scale-dependent and are city-dependent for intra-urban territories.

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