Presentation delivered by Harald Rohracher (Professor, Dept. of Thematic Studies – Technology and Social Change, Linköping University, Sweden) for URBACT Training for Elected Representatives on Integrated and Sustainable Urban Development.
Seminar 3 (2-4 December 2013, Brussels, Belgium): Sustainability and change. How can cities tackle the challenges of climate change and assess their progress? And how to intervene in complex energy transitions while improving a city's quality of life?
Read more: http://urbact.eu/en/news-and-events/urbact-events/training-for-elected-representatives/
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Cities as Arenas of Low-Carbon Transition? Analysing the Cases of Graz and Freiburg
1. Cities as arenas of low-carbon
transition?
Analysing the cases of Graz and
Freiburg
Harald Rohracher
Professor, Dept. of Thematic Studies –
Technology and Social Change
Linköping University, Sweden
2. Cities &Climate Change
Sustainability transitions: radical
reconfigurations of systems of production and
consumption
Energy,
mobility, food systems etc.
Cities increasingly regarded critical to
transitions
as ‘megatrend’
Source of 70-80% of anthropogenic GHGemissions
Foremost among victims of climate change
Key sites of ‘innovative response’
Urbanisation
3. A sociotechnicalsystemsperspective
Individual transport / the car: Just a technology?
Which social, cultural and technical elements
stabilise our car-based system of mobility?
Is
it just habits? Lack of technological alternatives?
How are cars entrenched in our society? Why is
such a system so difficult to change?
4. Culture andsymbolic
meanings (freedom,
individuality, indepencence..)
Regulationsandpolicies
(rules, standards;
finance, insurance…)
Marketsanduser
practices (preferences,
expectations, mobility
patterns …)
Socialinstitutions,
practices, meaning
Socio-technicalconfiguration
in personal transportation
Builtenvironment
(settlementstructures)
Industrystructure
(carmanufacturers,
suppliers)
Economicinterests
Research
Maintenance and
distributionnetworks
(retail, repair etc.)
Sunkcosts / investments
Vehicle / Artefact
Road infrastructure
andtrafficsystem
New technologies – ICT, Smart cars, materials…
Fuel infrastructure
New fuels;
newpropulsion
technologies
(ModifiedfromGeels 2004)
5. Socio-technical change and
stability
Multi-level perspective: niches, regimes and landscapes
Macro-level
(landscape)
Meso-level
(regimes,
institutions)
Micro-level
(Niches,
projects)
Source: Geels and Kemp, 2001
Socio-culturalbackground etc.
- veryslowchanges
Regimes providestability
andresistancetochange
Niches as test-beds /
protected spaces for learning
6. Transitions as multi-level
process
Focus on transformative change – systemic
innovations
Interaction between three levels is
important
Destabilisation
of regime; landscape pressures
Formation of niches – social learning, networkformation, shaping of expectations
Helpful for thinking about
Stability
/ obduracy of existing configurations
Variety of social and technical elements that
have to come together to cause a regime shift
Need for integrated and long-term policy
7. How can cities shape regime
change?
Infrastructures / regimes often reach far
beyond city limits + limited formal power of
cities
‘Soft power’ to shape change processes:
Self-governing:
own operation of e.g. buildings,
public procurement
Limited forms of regulation – mandates and
planning
Provision of services
Enabling: facilitating, coordination & encouraging
action, civil society involvement
Horizontal coordination: city networks
8. City of Graz, facts and figures
260.000 inhabitants
128 km2
Geographically situated in
basin
Capital city of Styria
45.000 students
9. ‘Eco-City’Graz: historic development
External pressures on existing energy
regime
Bad
air quality due to geographical situation
Network of energy activists established
within city administration and politics (policy
entrepreneurs)
Partially
roots in anti-nuclear movement
Early 1990s: From ‘smog city’ to ‘eco city’
Integrated
2000’
Environmental Programme‘Eco-City
10. Innovative Energy & Climate
Policies
Ambitious aims: Cutting CO2-emissions by 50%
until 2010 (based on 1987 figures)
Innovative type of programmes
Comprehensive and integrative perspective
(policy integration)
Participatory planning (stakeholders, wider public)
Partial outsourcing to research partners
New types of instruments (economic framing; win-win)
Action oriented; concrete targets; monitoring
Integration with social and economic aims
Local companies & jobs, social housing etc.
11. International support
Participation in international city networks
International attention and acclaim for its
activities, e.g.
Greenpeace International Climate Protection Award in
1993
International Sustainable City Award of the European
Union
in 1996
Dubai International Award & Climate Star in 2002
Sustainable Energy Europe Award in 2008
Civitas City of the Year 2008
Creation of urban identity
12. Thermoprofit
Energy performance contracting for private and
public buildings
Includes energy supply, building envelope, building
services
New financial arrangements + aggregation of
knowledge on energy-efficient refurbishing, models
for tenant participation, legal issues, dealing with
energy aspects in tendering etc.
Networks of local partner companies (Thermoprofit
partners)
Guaranteed quality standards
14. ‘Soft power’ of institutional change
Institutional change
Strengthened
department for energy and
environment
Establishment of more effective intra-municipal
working groups across departments and issues
Establishment of a municipal energy agency which
is owned by municipality and municipal utilities, but
collaborates internationally and acts (rather)
independently
Importance of intermediaries at urban level
Facilitation
and coordination of systemic change
Knowledge brokers; competence centres
17. Priorities for an energy transition
Vision: substitution of nuclear electricity, lead in
efficiency and renewables, solar industry cluster
Germany’s
‘Solar capital’, various international prizes
Policies driven by experts & citizens rather than
administration (main admin-focus: PR, green
image)
Reduce demand by increasing energy efficiency
Pioneering
enforcement of high energetic building
standards (by plans, private contracts etc.)
District heating, CHP
Transport: Change in modal split achieved but anticar policy highly contested
18. Vauban district – the plan
18
Ph. Späth, Environmental Policies in Freiburg
19. ‘Lessons’ from eco-cities
Despite limited power within multi-level
governance structures cities can be
successful in achieving a (moderate)
restructuring of the energy regime
Not
so much technology development, but
implementation skills, formation of actor alliances,
new business clusters (e.g. energy-efficient building
renovation; solar installations)
Urban governance brings together actors across
energy system level in new roles –
incumbents/utilities, local businesses offering new
products/services, concerned citizens…
20. Cities as facilitators of systemic
change
Not only niche-regime dynamics, but other
socio-political dynamics important
Particular
local agendas, jobs, tourism, visibility
Interactions between different governance levels
Competition between cities / networks of cities
important
Despite severe constraints, cities and regions
can be important social context for deviations
from dominant energy system
Legitimacy
for visions of more sustainable regimes
Demonstrating the viability of alternative regime
21. Cities as facilitators of systemic
change
Significant governance capacity at local level…
Not
only formal powers, but proximity effects,
inclusion of civil society, capacity for coordination,
regional identities
Strategic action at city/regional level can have
(discursive) repercussions on other scales =>
diffusion of alternative configurations
Regions / cities as sites for
Formation
of new visions and discourse coalitions
Formation of heterogeneous networks across
different interests and actor types as effect of
proximity / trust
22. Challenges for urban transitions
How to create learning effects across different
initiatives and experiments?
Upscaling?
Systemic change?
How to create long-lasting institutional change?
New
instruments, standardisation, agencies,
new structures for policy integration
How to broaden the actor basis?
Involvement
of civil society? Companies?
How to link energy with other socio-political
issues?
Vision building? Urban identity? Measuring
23. Thank you for your
attention!
harald.rohracher@liu.se