Making the energy transition a success in the regions

The Second Environmental Conference was an opportunity for the French President to set a course for the energy transition. Supporting public policies for the energy transition is one of the French savings bank Group's strategic priorities: mobilizing large-scale financing, providing the support territories need, and accelerating the transition. This report, entrusted to the Institute of Urban Morphologies by the French savings bank Group's strategy department in January 2013, aims to clarify the links between the spatial organization of territories and energy efficiency, by proposing a methodology for analyzing and quantifying these links. Drawing on a growing body of data on territories, the Institute has developed a scientific approach that makes it possible to quantitatively explain a number of links between the spatial structure of territories and their networks, and their energy efficiency, economic productivity and social inclusiveness. The approach is morphological and based on complex systems. By morphology we mean not only physical forms, but also those of social and economic links between territorial players. This effort to understand the city as a complex system is interdisciplinary, drawing on the findings of quantitative geography and spatial economics, as well as on the body of knowledge of architects, urban planners and engineers