Why are energy-system transitions important?
In 2020, cities dumped a whopping 29 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Low-carbon cities are crucial to mitigate the effects of climate change.
An energy-system transition could reduce urban carbon dioxide emissions by around 74%.
With rapid advancements in clean energy and related technologies and nosediving prices, we have crossed the economic and technological barriers to implementing low-carbon solutions.
The transition must be implemented both on the demand and the supply side.
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Why are energy-system transitions important?
Mitigation options on the supply side:
Phasing out fossil fuels and increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix.
Using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.
Mitigation options on the demand side:
Using the ‘avoid, shift, improve’ framework would entail reducing the demand for materials and energy, and substituting the demand for fossil fuels with renewables.
To address residual emissions in the energy sector, implement carbon-dioxide removal (CDR) technologies.
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What are the different strategies?
Varies based on a city’s characteristics.
Transitioning to renewable energy sources is not as simple as replacing fossil fuels with clean energy.
There are multifarious issues of energy justice and social equity to be dealt with.
This is a key consideration when we frame energy-transition policies that are socially and environmentally fair.
These considerations are a city’s spatial form, land-use pattern, level of development, and the state of urbanisation.
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What are the different strategies?
An established city can retrofit and repurpose its infrastructure to increase energy efficiency, and promote public as well as active transport like bicycling and walking.
Walkable cities designed around people can significantly reduce energy demand.
Electrifying public transport
Setting up renewable-based district cooling and heating networks.
A rapidly growing city can try to colocate housing and jobs — by bringing places of work closer to residential complexes, thus reducing transport energy demand.
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What are the different strategies?
Such cities can also leapfrog to low-carbon technologies, including renewables and CCS.
New and emerging cities - most potential to reduce emissions — using energy-efficient services and infrastructure, and a people-centric urban design.
They can also implement building codes that mandate net-zero energy use and retrofit existing buildings, all while gradually shifting to low-emission construction material.
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How can an energy transition be just?
Energy systems are directly and indirectly linked to livelihoods, local economic development, and the socio-economic well-being of people engaged in diverse sectors.
So a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to ensure a socially and environmentally just transition.
For example, transitioning to renewable-energy sources could disproportionately affect groups of people or communities in developing economies and sectors that depend on fossil fuels.
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How can an energy transition be just?
The energy supply needs to be balanced against fast-growing energy demand (due to urbanisation), the needs of energy security, and exports.
Other Justice Concerns:
Land dispossession related to large-scale renewable energy projects,
Spatial concentration of poverty
The marginalisation of certain communities
Gendered impacts
Reliance on coal for livelihoods.
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Concerns - Examples
Developing economies, including Nigeria, Angola, and Venezuela, owe a significant fraction of their GDPs to fossil-fuel exports.
Transitioning away from these industries could devastate their economies, with the consequences landing particularly heavily on the workers employed in the fossil-fuel sector.
Similarly, in developed countries, many communities suffer energy poverty and inequity due to high energy costs, low incomes, and inadequate infrastructure.
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Concerns - Examples
In the U.S., expenditure on energy bills is a significant chunk of the total income of low-income households. This can crowd out expenses for other amenities like healthcare and nutrition.
Way forward
Ensuring a transition to low-carbon energy systems in cities at different stages of urbanisation, national contexts, and institutional capacities requires strategic and bespoke efforts.
They must be directed at governance and planning, achieving behavioural shifts.
Way forward
Promoting technology and innovation, and building institutional capacity.
Adopt a comprehensive approach to address the root causes of energy and environmental injustices. This includes :
Mitigation and adaptation responses that engage multiple stakeholders in energy governance and decision-making,
Promoting energy-efficiency, scaling up climate investments, and capturing alternate knowledge streams (including indigenous and local lived experiences).
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