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Publish date: November 18, 2010
News
To introduce the Smart Cities EEI, Christopher Schoser, of the European Commission’s energy department, introduced the Smart Cities EII by exposing its objectives to accelerate the deployment of low carbon technologies in urban areas, e.g. ”put cities at the forefront of EU energy and climate policy by increasing the energy efficiency and the renewable energy system, and improving the sustainability of urban transport.”
The initiative will consist in the selection of pioneering cities as models and at the same time make partnerships more innovative.
The Smart Cities Initiative targets are (relatively to the 2010 level):
– reduce CO2 emissions by more than 20%
– increase renewable energy use in the supply of electricity and of heating and cooling by more than 20 percentage points
– increase end use energy efficiency by more than 20 percentage points
– increase the share of public transport
– increase cycling and walking by 20%
– increase the share of alternative fuel vehicles in public vehicle fleets to 50%
To reach these goals and boost the market, the Smart Cities EII will address the regulatory framework (standard setting and green public procurment), imagine new financial schemes for local communities and innovate on the cooperation among stakeholders.
Jochen Kreuzel, ABB AG Germany, further shared his industrial perspective on the Smart Cities initiative. The new generation mix, which results in increased remote generation, distributed generation and volatile generation, has significant consequences such as the need for long-distance transmission, higher reliability, voltage control, and storage. This will be possible thanks to the roll-out of smart grids and home automation systems (”Smart home”). The transparency and controllability of consumption gained by this will contribute to the reduction of consumption and costs.
Additionally, challenges will be overcome, on condition that cooperation between all parties is enhanced and consumer behavior considered.
After the consultation process closure at the end of 2010 and the stakeholders platform early 2011, the first call for proposals for Smart cities will be released mid-2011.
Access the presentations on Smart Cities Initiative on the SET-Plan website.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.