Abstract
In the light of cumbersome national energy transitions, cities across the world are increasingly taking the lead in promoting renewable energy on the municipal level. Whereas cities in Europe and the United States are the most prominent pioneers of this trend, the need for renewable energy in Western cities is in fact less urgent. Energy savings often have a much greater priority for these city leaders. This is in contrast to cities in emerging markets, which are on a fast trajectory to become the megacities of tomorrow. Where population growth is imminent and economic development unimpeded, the living standards for many will increase. As a consequence, cities in many developing economies face the growing challenge to meet rising energy needs. For these cities, it is crucial to find adequate solutions for this additional demand despite the major costs involved. This chapter examines cities in developing countries to try to determine which of them have been able to stimulate green growth, in which the development of green energy businesses and green energy policies are mutually reinforcing. The authors assess current renewable energy trends across 36 cities and show that until today only a few cities have been able to create such synergies.
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Notes
- 1.
This was the case in Cape Town, where municipal authorities have to balance between major socio-economic challenges while trying to commit to their Energy and Climate Change Strategy (Mans 2010).
- 2.
The term green economy refers to all economic sectors that primarily produce products that support the reduction of CO2 emissions. Some authors prefer to speak about clean economy. For the purpose of this chapter, the term green economy is used.
- 3.
It is important to note that this does not include a quantitative judgment on how much monetary benefit these businesses represent for a given municipality. This would depend on further research on the labor market, tax revenue, direct investment and other indirect positive effects on the urban economy.
- 4.
This chapter is based on the regional Green City Indexes for Asia, Latin America, US and Canada and Europe. The one done for Germany was not included in Fig. 1 for matter of readability.
- 5.
This means that Singapore, Osaka, Tokyo, Yokohama, Hong Kong and Taipei were not considered to be ‘developing country cities’.
- 6.
As many companies are involved in more than one sector (on average 1.75 sectors per company) these numbers do not present an ‘exclusive’ focus on a particular energy technology, rather it gives an indication about which sectors have the largest economic footprint in each city.
- 7.
Because many companies are active in more than one sector, the numbers do not match with the office count.
- 8.
This specialization only refers to the renewable energy sector. For example, many companies produce a range of products, including renewable energy products: i.e. Avago Technologies in Seoul produce fiber optics, optical sensors, etc. but also solar PV products. This company does not produce any other renewable energy appliances and therefore, for the purpose of this chapter, is considered to be specialized in solar energy.
- 9.
According to the Chairman of the Bio-Electricity Working Group of Thai Sugar Millers Corporation, Interview, September 2010.
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Mans, U., Meerow, S. (2013). Linking Green City Politics with Green Business. In: Simpson, R., Zimmermann, M. (eds) The Economy of Green Cities. Local Sustainability, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1969-9_14
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