Transition to a low-carbon City

In Context

It has been observed that Cities are critical actors in the energy transition.

Role of Cities in energy-system transitions

• In 2020, cities dumped a whopping 29 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 
  • This carbon dioxide along with other greenhouse gases poses a serious health hazard. It also manifests as extreme weather events, leading to the loss of lives, livelihoods, assets, and social well-being.
• Therefore, given the significant impact that cities have on the environment, 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%. 

Different strategies

• The strategies to mitigate and adapt to low carbon varies based on a city’s characteristics.
  • 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. 
  • In fact, walkable cities designed around people can significantly reduce energy demand, as can electrifying public transport and setting up renewable-based district cooling and heating networks. 
  • A rapidly growing city can try to colocate housing and jobs — by planning the city in a way that brings places of work closer to residential complexes, thus reducing transport energy demand. 
    • Such cities can also leapfrog to low-carbon technologies, including renewables.
  • New and emerging cities have the most potential to reduce emissions — using energy-efficient services and infrastructure, and a people-centric urban design.

Challenges and Concerns 

• 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.
• Other concerns include land dispossession related to large-scale renewable energy projects, spatial concentration of poverty, the marginalisation of certain communities, gendered impacts, and the reliance on coal for livelihoods. 

Suggestions and Way Ahead 

• The transition must be implemented both on the demand and the supply side.
  • Mitigation options on the supply side include phasing out fossil fuels and increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix, and using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.
  •  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. 
• In order to address residual emissions in the energy sector, we must implement carbon-dioxide removal (CDR) technologies.

• 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, promoting technology and innovation, and building institutional capacity. 
• We must also 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).

• There is a need for a Sector-coupling approach to decarbonise urban systems.