Guest Editorial. Planning for Resource Efficient Cities

Christian FERTNER*¹, Niels Boje GROTH¹
* Corresponding author
¹ University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Science, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Copenhagen, DENMARK
E-mail: chfe@ign.ku.dk, nbg@ign.ku.dk
Pages: 1-3. DOI: 10.19188/01JSSPSI052016

Cite: Fertner C., Groth N. B. (2016), Guest Editorial. Planning for Energy Efficient Cities. Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning, Special Issue 5, 1-3. DOI: 10.19188/01JSSPSI052016

Abstract. Addressing the threats of climate change has become a key issue in urban development. Striving towards energy self-sufficiency, implementing regional resource cycles, retrofitting of the built environment, turning energy consumption towards renewables as well as generally decoupling urban development from energy consumption are crucial for a city’s future vulnerability and resilience against changes in general resource availability. The challenge gets further complex, as resource and energy efficiency in a city is deeply interwoven with other aspects of urban development such as social structures  and the geographical context. As cities are the main consumer of energy and resources, they are both problem and solution to tackle issues of energy efficiency and saving. Cities have been committed to this agenda, especially to meet the national and international energy targets. Increasingly, cities act as entrepreneurs of new energy solutions acknowledging that efficient monitoring of energy and climate policies has become important to urban branding and competitiveness. This special issue presents findings from the European FP7 project ‘Planning for Energy Efficient Cities’ (PLEEC) and related research.

K e y w o r d s:  resource efficiency, urban planning, sustainable development, smart cities