Energy Transition in Europe | www.energy-cities.eu

The ongoing energy transition brings new opportunities for utilisation of distributed energy resources (DER) and for the evolution in the role of end-users from passive consumers to active customers, who both produce and consume energy.

Following the announcement of the Swedish city of Malmö as the new MCR2030 Resilience Hub, we talked to mayor Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh about the way this will affect future plans in the realm of urba..

Localtis : Le gouvernement a lancé le 27 octobre 2021 un appel à projets doté de 30 millions d’euros pour soutenir les projets "structurants" de territoires connectés. Car, comme le révèle un état des lieux publié à cette occasion, la multiplication des projets sans vision partagée du territoire intelligent nuit à leur généralisation.

In June 2020, after a drawn-out process punctuated by the peak of the health crisis, Green lists excelled in France’s municipal elections. They are now at the head of the executive in some of France’s largest cities, including Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and Tours. We spoke to Bruno Bernard, president of the Greater Lyon metropolitan area, and Léonore Moncond’huy, the newly elected 30-year-old mayor of Poitiers, about how the pandemic affected their vision for the future, what Green government brings to a crisis, and ecology’s place in the French political landscape.

Les grandes métropoles ont paru, lors du premier confinement, se repeupler d’animaux sauvages profitant du vide que nous leur avions laissé.

La ville d'Isère défend une candidature solide sur le sujet climat englobant les Alpes.

In this study by TNO, two scenarios (ADAPT and TRANSFORM) are used to explore the major changes in the Dutch energy system that may take place up to 2050. For both scenarios, the aim of the Dutch Climate Act has been taken as a starting point: a step-by-step reduction of GHG emissions in the Netherlands to a level that is 95% lower in 2050 than in 1990, which helps to implement the Paris Agreement to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. The two scenarios are also designed to achieve the objective of the Dutch Climate Agreement: a reduction of GHG emissions by 49% in 2030. The scenarios differ in the way the goals are achieved, in particular the difference in intrinsic motivation of citizens and companies. In the ADAPT scenario, the Dutch economy builds on current strengths, chooses security and preserves the current lifestyle, but with a strong limitation of CO2 emissions. In the TRANSFORM scenario, the Dutch society is prepared to change behaviour and opts for a structural change to a more sustainable economy. This makes the Netherlands less energy intensive. The two scenarios are not meant to be compared with each other, but as to study the impact of certain choices in two different plausible futures for the Netherlands.

The Municipality of Amsterdam presented its green vision for the future earlier this week. The document depicts how it wants to keep the city green in the leadup to 2050 and how to go even further beyond. The vision is still a concept waiting for the feedback and contribution from citizens.

While political decision-makers and medical scientists are working around the clock to limit the virus’ impact, many have criticized their decisions and actions to date. Above all, journalists, citizens’ groups, trade unions and individuals are questioning decision-making processes and the resulting actions. In other words, it is primarily about organization and governance in a radically unknown context.

We posit that in such a context, the right form of organization and governance for managing and monitoring such a crisis, as well as preparing the crisis exit is highly critical. However, it is yet to be invented, designed and trialled.

We propose exploring a new form of organization — still a “work-in-progress”, which we believe could help governments in their decision-making processes and actions. It is a “three-pronged model”, building on and improving the organization we have observed in most countries. The aim is to address decision-making, scientific advice and new path discovery based on a centralized decision-making process and distributed action at scale.

On October 27, Glasgow City Council unanimously backed a motion stating that women should be at the heart of all aspect of city planning, becoming the first city in the UK to embrace 'feminist urbanism'.

We need to work out new ways of living—on individual, local, regional, national, and international scales—to prosper without economic growth and to develop our human potential without robbing the opportunities of future generations.

The guiding principle of the City Strategy is that Helsinki is a place of growth. This means, for example, that Helsinki is a good place to grow from a child into an adult, to grow one’s skills, and to continue to grow everything good that we already have. Helsinki must be a city where people can realize themselves, create opportunities and seize them. This also necessitates long-term and sustainable economic growth.

It is a unique initiative on a national scale, as citizens and other city stakeholders are involved in planning the city’s development strategy and then implementing it together.
As the residents are the beating heart of this transformation, the Deep Listening method, brought from the Mondragon Valley in the Basque Country, was used to co-create a long-term vision of Rybnik’s future with them. This method involved a series of in-depth interviews with residents and a complex process of analysis. Deep Listening is a key methodology to foster more effective collective action for social change.

Lancé début novembre, le mouvement Printemps des Villes réunit différents acteurs de la construction urbaine, pour faire évoluer les usages à travers l'élaboration d'une charte commune.

While the question of lifestyles and their sobriety has long been at the heart of ecological thinking, its explicit integration into national and international decarbonation pathways is relatively new. What methodological and substantive challenges does this development pose in terms of understanding, representing and projecting the ecological transition?

Key Messages
- An evolution in low-carbon foresight exercises can be observed: it opens up a new field of possibilities and space for exploration by explicitly considering changes in lifestyle and behaviour.
- Better integrating these dimensions into foresight research can make four main contributions to the policy discussion: 1) showing the limits of current strategies and reaffirming the technical and social character of the transition; 2) shifting the focus to technical solutions and testing the feasibility and role of other transformations; 3) building a common language and making the transition more concrete; and 4) encouraging to increase our knowledge of social transformations and break out of disciplinary silos.
- These benefits can be realised provided that the political dimension of exploring lifestyles is recognised, that the challenges inherent in multidisciplinary approaches are overcome, and that specific methodologies are developed.

The Amsterdam of the future will be much more sustainable, with 50 % less use of raw materials in a decade’s time and with an entirely circular economy by 2050. But not before it reaches its 2020-2025 goals, which have just been set out and approved by the College of Mayor and Aldermen.

Italian cities are looking to capitalise on the reduced car use resulting from the Covid-19 outbreak by taking action to improve mobility and ensure public safety.
The north of Italy is one of Europe’s most polluted areas and has also been notably hard hit by the Covid-19 outbreak. Due to the nationwide lockdown, car travel has dropped by 30-75%, which has also resulted in a large drop in air pollution. Now, as cities consider easing their lockdown measures, officials are seeking to prevent a significant increase in private motorised traffic and air pollution. In this context, there is a recognition that public transport could struggle as requirements to maintain social distancing need to be followed and people are likely to be wary of sharing enclosed spaces.