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Why Cities?

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Decarbonising Cities

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

Abstract

This chapter begins by highlighting cities’ vulnerability to climate change and why they are keen to take action. An overview of the research relating to how greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to cities globally is then provided. Cities are the driving force in twenty-first century economies, so the potential for cities to address climate change is high if it can be facilitated. Australia is used as an example to highlight these main sources of carbon within the built environment, which includes a discussion on urban form and an overview of the current arguments for and against various types of urban form and their ability to reduce emissions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The terms ‘cities’ and ‘urban areas’ will be used interchangeably within this book.

  2. 2.

    Production-based approach captures emissions from the Front-End of the economy (i.e. big polluters and energy intensive industries), while the consumption approach captures emissions as they enter the economy and are consumed by the End-User.

  3. 3.

    VKT is a common metric for understanding and comparing emissions from transport.

  4. 4.

    Most studies use the term ‘embodied energy’ as opposed to ‘embodied emissions’ as energy has been the typical focus to date. As energy largely correlates with emissions, the term energy is used interchangeably and as a proxy for emissions within this section.

  5. 5.

    What constitutes ‘embodied energy’ is currently not well defined or universally agreed upon in existing research. Most studies concur that embodied energy includes the energy associated with the production process of building materials, including the extraction and processing of raw materials, and manufacturing and transport (Cabeza et al. 2013). However, others suggest EmE also includes the onsite construction and demolition processes associated with buildings and final disposal of materials (Dixit et al. 2012). The differences in system boundaries can have a significant effect on the percentage of emissions attributed to EE of buildings.

  6. 6.

    However, Dixit et al. (2012) raise the question of whether this is a reliable way of measuring EE.

  7. 7.

    See, for example, eTOOL—http://etool.net.au/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Vanessa Rauland & Peter Newman

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  1. Vanessa Rauland
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  2. Peter Newman
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Correspondence to Vanessa Rauland .

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Rauland, V., Newman, P. (2015). Why Cities?. In: Decarbonising Cities. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15506-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15506-7_3

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