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

Les Suisses vivant dans des coopératives d’habitation expérimentent d’autres manières de vivre ensemble. Pour l’un de leurs précurseurs, il ne s’agi

An environmental neuroscientist explores the disparities that exist in public space in order to create more equitable urban environments.

Rob Hopkins is an author and a Co-Founder of Transition Town Totnes and Transition Network. He approaches the question of “What could possibly go right?” with a fascination in the power of imagination for our future.

As we navigate this connected set of crises it’s clear that we’re at an unprecedented moment of reckoning in the history of our civilizations.

There has been an on-going shift in mobility in cities but that has accelerated as cities cope with the coronavirus crisis. Martin Kuebler discusses latest developments in an article on the Deutsche Welle website.   Coronavirus inspires cities to push climate-friendly mobility Cities around the world have been at a standstill, trying to stop the…

En tant qu’expert·e·s en psychologie sociale, les parallèles et divergences entre la crise du covid-19 et l’urgence climatique, et plus particulièrement sur la manière dont la population y réagit, nous interpellent profondément. Face à une pandémie, la très grande majorité des individus a accepté des mesures restreignant strictement son quotidien et ses libertés individuelles. Il en est tout autre quand il s’agit de lutter contre le profond dérèglement climatique que l’humain a provoqué.

We asked locals in the Belgian city to tell us how things have changed since the introduction of its circulatieplan in 2017

Marmalade Lane, a co-housing development in Cambridge, UK, is the first community of its type in the city. The new-build house model brings both the commune and urban family living into the 21st century.

An unexpected positive effect of the lockdown measures put in place in March this year was the sudden increase in the use of bicycles.Europeans, encouraged by authorities to reduce the strain on public transport, took to two wheels.

Cycling helps improve air quality and keep down congestion on the roads. Major cities saw air pollution sink to record lows during lockdown, but bicycles also gave people a way to exercise. In May, the EU announced that funding for sustainable infrastructure, including for new or better bike lanes, will be doubled to €20 billion.

By repairing their items instead of throwing them away, citizens of Vienna are actively contributing to the fight against climate change
Repairing and reusing one’s items is crucial in the fight against climate change. Instead of throwing stuff away and generating more and more waste, citizens of Vienna have had an opportunity to have them once again made usable thanks to the city’s repair vouchers and receipts.
A massive success, both saving money and protecting the environment
The Vienna repair voucher is a one-of-a-kind platform that brings together consumers, vendors and repair shops. The network created by the city allows for citizens who purchase from specific venues to have their items repaired at one of the Austrian capital’s many repair shops at a significantly reduced price by simply downloading the repair voucher on their phones.
"Repairing instead of throwing it away, that is an active contribution to climate protection and I am pleased that the Viennese are taking our offer so well," said Environment City Councilor Ulli Sima

Behaviour change – reducing emissions by changing how we live our lives – should be part of every government and think tank’s sustainable scenario, explains Schalk Cloete. That’s because impressive advances in energy efficiency and clean energy won’t be enough to contain the emissions of a world continuing with the essential task of lifting billions …

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.

Understanding how people decide to use less energy at home or at work is crucial to boost virtuous behaviours. Our reaction to any novelty is so complex that a lot of socio-psychological research has been done to try to make it more predictable. Gianluca Dotti discusses much of this research in an article on the…

The measures taken to fight the Covid-19 pandemic are changing our daily lives. Many see this as an opportunity to initiate more sustainable behaviours, and even hope that this experience of imposed sobriety will be transformed into a real awareness in favour of more virtuous lifestyles for the environment. However, this hope must be put into perspective: our lifestyles are determined by a set of factors, many of which have not been erased by health measures, which explains why certain aspects of these measures are experienced as a constraint. The long-term impact of the current health and socio-economic crisis thus depends on how the framework that structures our lifestyles will evolve. Public action has a key role to play in this process, which needs to be re-examined.

How do you factor future behaviour change into transport, housing, workplace and energy infrastructure planning? Clearly, future plans based on past behaviour will end up being wrong. And metrics that tell us which behaviour is most efficient can point us in better directions. We won’t find the answer until we start measuring it. That’s why …