The Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning

Research Project: CO2-neutral in cities and neighbourhoods - the European and international perspective

Project briefing

The EU has set out ambitious targets for CO2 reduction. Urban areas emit the largest part of greenhouse gases (GHG) including CO2 globally. Therefore, emissions need to be reduced in cities and neighbourhoods in particular (mitigation). But how do cities measure their CO2 footprint? Are there globally any comparable guidelines, regulatory frameworks or funding schemes like in Germany? These questions and further aspects will be answered from the European and international perspective based on a detailed analysis of more than 20 global cities and numerous international networks, guidelines, tools and regulations.

Project duration: October 2015 - November 2016

Background

To ensure effective countermeasures against the foreseeable and to some extent still unpredictable negative effects of climate change, it is necessary to limit GHG emissions. In the past, emissions that were of anthropogenic origin increased rapidly. These emissions are the main driver for global warming. The international community, the EU member states and Germany in particular are aware of their responsibility. During the 21.UN climate conference (COP21) in Paris in 2015, the international community agreed to limit global warming to a maximum of 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels. In order to achieve this goal, the remaining carbon budget amounts to approx. 750 billion tons.

With a share of 70%, most anthropogenic GHG emissions emerge from urban areas. Various human activities like land use change, production processes, mobility, waste disposal as well as construction and building use cause direct and indirect emissions. Against this background, there is a huge need for mitigation activities in cities in order to fight climate change. Moreover, studies reveal a positive and continuous trend regarding further urbanisation. This migration to urban settlements combined with constant population growth puts further pressure on (rising) GHG emissions. Taking this into account cities are cause and solution with regard to climate change.

Approaches to tackle climate change should therefore be focused on the city and neighbourhood level supporting a bottom-up approach in order to derive useful and scalable recommendations. The importance of cities regarding climate change has long been neglected. Recently, the perception has changed due to conferences like HABITAT III and COP22.

Objective

The objective of the project 'CO2-neutral in cities and neighbourhoods - the European and international perspective' is to fully understand the role and the approaches of European and international cities with regard to CO2-emission reduction. In this context, special focus was placed on neighbourhoods, urban planning and the building stock. Furthermore, the analysis also included other sectors like mobility and waste management. Another goal was to derive an overview of methods, tools and guidelines that enable cities to identify state of the art and of progress serving progress monitoring (and creating a carbon inventory) - thus supporting political argumentation.

In respect to GHG emissions, local cause-effect chains are highly complex. Approaches and measures to enable GHG emission reductions in cities and neighbourhoods - like the energy efficiency enhancement of the real estate, the shift to renewable energy sources and professional waste management including recycling - are common and evident options. Nevertheless, due to the heterogeneity of urban settlements - for example geographical characteristics, regional climate patterns as well as different social, economic and political conditions - cities have differing starting positions and as a result individual low-carbon strategies for city (re-)development. Therefore the project comprises a broad range of (different) cities.

The transformation of cities and neighbourhoods to low-carbon settlements to a great extent involves the new construction and redevelopment/refurbishment of the existing property stock. Analysing the neighbourhood level also enables a precise focus on specific measures and supports awareness of the local community.

Based on identified best practice approaches, the project team developed recommendations for the future fields of action of political guidelines and specific framework conditions. The results should enable local administrations and politicians to identify CO2 emissions in due time, objectively and transparently and on this basis to derive efficient measures to realize a structured decarbonization.

The project was carried out by the IRE|BS Competence Center for Sustainable Real Estate at the University of Regensburg, contact: Prof. Dr. Sven Bienert.

Pagination

Die CO2-freie Stadt – Wunsch und Wirklichkeit IzR (Informationen zur Raumentwicklung) Issue 5/6.2012 |

Contact us

  • Dr. André Müller
    Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development
    Division RS 3 "European Spatial and Urban Development"
    Phone: +49 228 99401-2341
    Email: andre.mueller@bbr.bund.de

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