Credits

Modern cities are, above all else, the product of fossil fuel technology. Could they exist and thrive, without the routine use of oil, gas and coal? What can be done to minimize their climate impacts and to maximize their use of renewable energy? To find answers to these questions is the task of the joint Commission on Cities and Climate Change of the World Future Council Foundation and HafenCity University Hamburg. Peter Droege's pioneering text assesses the options and surveys the evidence for a transformation of communities and cities towards carbon neutrality and beyond. Major energy efficiency retrofits are clearly needed as a first step and with renewable energy (RE) becoming cost-competitive with the help of innovative national and regional legislation such as Feed-In Tariffs, breakthroughs towards 100 percent RE supplies for cities are becoming a possibility that could hardly have been envisaged ten years ago. Even the largest cities can make this transition, drawing on RE supplies from within their boundaries, as well as from further away. Supplies from their immediate hinterland may have to be augmented by wind farms, solar installations and energy storage systems further afield. In addition to assuring urban energ