Urban Sustainability Issues — Enabling Resource-Efficient Cities

EEA Technical report No 25/2015 Urban sustainability issues — Enabling resource-efficient cities ISSN 1725-2237 EEA Technical report No 25/2015 Urban sustainability issues — Enabling resource-efficient cities Cover design: EEA Cover photo: © Rastislav Staník Layout: EEA/Rosendahls Legal notice The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the official opinions of the European Commission or other institutions of the European Union. Neither the European Environment Agency nor any person or company acting on behalf of the Agency is responsible for the use that may be made of the information contained in this report. Copyright notice © European Environment Agency, 2015 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu). Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2015 ISBN 978-92-9213-712-0 ISSN 1725-2237 doi:10.2800/952903 European Environment Agency Kongens Nytorv 6 1050 Copenhagen K Denmark Tel.: +45 33 36 71 00 Web: eea.europa.eu Enquiries: eea.europa.eu/enquiries Contents Contents 1 What is this report about? ................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Three reports on resource-efficient cities ............................................................................8 1.1.1 What is a resource-efficient city? ...............................................................................8 1.1.2 Resource-efficient cities: good practice ....................................................................8 1.1.3 Enabling resource-efficient cities ...............................................................................8 1.2 Scope of this report ................................................................................................................. 9 2 The factors contributing to complexity ............................................................................ 10 2.1 Cooperation and coordination challenges .........................................................................10 2.2 Integration challenges ..........................................................................................................11 2.3 Societal challenges ................................................................................................................12 3 The role of the different levels of government ............................................................... 13 3.1 The European level ................................................................................................................15 3.1.1 Long-term orientations .............................................................................................15 3.1.2 Sectoral orientations .................................................................................................16 3.2.3 Cohesion Policy ..........................................................................................................17 3.2.4 Sharing knowledge and learning by example ��19 3.2.5 Research .....................................................................................................................22 3.2 The national level ..................................................................................................................22 3.2.1 Long-term visions and targets .................................................................................22 3.2.2 From national to subnational level .........................................................................24 3.3 The regional level ..................................................................................................................24 3.3.1 Potential for action ....................................................................................................25 3.3.2 Working with enterprises .........................................................................................28 4 Transition management in cities ...................................................................................... 29 4.1 Facing a 'wicked' problem ...................................................................................................29 4.2 A co-creative and participatory process ............................................................................31 4.3 The perception issue .............................................................................................................34 4.4 The lessons learnt from success stories .............................................................................34 4.5 Key factors in the management of transition cities .........................................................36 5 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 43 Urban sustainability issues — Enabling resource-efficient cities 3 Lists of figures, tables and boxes Lists of figures, tables and boxes List of figures Figure 1.1 The links between the three reports on resource-efficient cities ....................................... 9 Figure 2.1 Territorial and multilevel approaches .................................................................................. 10 Figure 3.1 Waste prevention as a cross-cutting policy area ................................................................ 16 Figure 4.1 Transition management cycle ............................................................................................... 31 Figure 4.2 Governing resource efficiency ............................................................................................... 31 List of tables Table 3.1 Actions taken at different levels of government with the aim of achieving resource and energy efficiency ............................................................................................. 13 Table 3.2 Local governance and available instruments ...................................................................... 28 Table 4.1 Summary of the different roles of city and regional authorities in promoting innovation based on the quadruple helix model ............................................................... 32 List of boxes Box 1.1 Urban areas, cities, urban environment ............................................................................... 7 Box 3.1 Binding measures for energy efficiency ............................................................................... 15 Box 3.2 Waste prevention, a cross-cutting policy area .................................................................... 16 Box 3.3 Enhancement of partnership ............................................................................................... 17 Box 3.4 RegioStars Awards 2015 ........................................................................................................ 18 Box 3.5 LIFE and water efficiency........................................................................................................ 19 Box 3.6 The main platforms, portals and initiatives facilitating the exchange of information, knowledge and experience �� 20 Box 3.7 The Covenant of Mayors: a bridge between cities and the EU's institutions .................. 21 Box 3.8 German resource efficiency programme ............................................................................ 23 Box 3.9 National or regional targets for municipal waste ............................................................... 23 Box 3.10 England's plan to reduce waste food .................................................................................. 24 Box 3.11 The role of regions in the renovation of buildings ............................................................. 25 Box 3.12 Promoting a regional circular economy in Flanders, Belgium .......................................... 26 Box 3.13 Green innovation vouchers to support SMEs in Navarra and Valencia ........................... 27 Box 4.1 Strict energy standards in Copenhagen's building code ................................................... 29 Box 4.2 Transition management ........................................................................................................ 30 Box 4.3 Seoul: an arena for building a sharing economy ............................................................... 33 Box 4.4 Public–private partnership for transforming the city of Bottrop ...................................... 33 Box 4.5 Cataloguing vacant spaces in Budapest ............................................................................... 34 Box 4.6 Urban sustainability and the city's image ............................................................................ 36 Box 4.7 Functional regions in Sweden ............................................................................................... 37 Box 4.8 Güssing: a small town that achieved self-sufficiency in renewable energy ..................... 38 Box 4.9 Managing natural resources with the ecoBUDGET tool: the case of Bologna ................ 39 Box 4.10 The success story of tramway T2 in Île-de-France .............................................................. 41 Box 4.11 The 'Bicycle Account' of the city of Copenhagen................................................................. 42 Box 4.12 PRO-LITE — public procurement for innovative lighting solutions .................................

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