Energy and Urban Innovation - World Energy Council, Executive Summary + Report

This report outlines the energy-related challenges that cities, particularly large and 'mega-cities', will face during the coming decades. It analyses the technical and policy actions that must be taken to meet these challenges and the role the energy industry and business can play in designing and implementing efficient solutions. The report is the result of a bottom-up process in which World Energy Council members carried out case studies on a comprehensive set of large to 'mega' cities, both in the developed and emerging world. It is complemented by an extensive literature study. An expanding number of large cities face significant energy-related challenges now and in the future. Technical and policy actions must be taken in order to meet these challenges. In this context, energy companies play a crucial role in the design and implementation of efficient solutions. The report studies the growth, development, and energy-linked issues of large cities; develops concepts for a secure and sustainable energy supply and distribution system, including transportation; and recommends norms and the necessary steps to ensure sustainability. Cities studied include Tokyo, Mexico City, Delhi, Toronto, Shanghai, Cape Town, London and Paris (a comparison), and the San Francisco Bay Area. The report contains data, facts, analysis, and proposals concerning: urbanisation and the challenges for a sustainable energy supply (Chapter 1); assessments of the potential and costs of innovative urban technologies (Chapter 2); and descriptions of the 'policy packages' aimed at overcoming the problems associated with cities (Chapters 3 to 5).