International Symposium on Urban Energy and Carbon Management: Challenges for Science and Policy and the International Workshop on Urban Energy and Carbon Modeling

February 4-6, 2008
AIT Center, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, Thailand
Organizers:
Global Carbon Project (GCP)
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)
National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES)

Background

Urban development pathways chosen by cities determine global carbon emissions to a large extent. In 2005, the United Nations estimated that nearly half of the 6.5 billion world population lived in urban areas, mostly in cities, a substantial rise from the 29% who lived in urban areas in 1950 (UN, 2006) . Fossil fuels supply 80.3% of global commercial energy (IEA, 2006). In OECD countries, cities consume between 70 and 80% of fossil fuels nationally (OECD, 1995). In non-OECD countries the share could be higher because commercial energy is predominantly used in cities. Moreover, an additional 1.8 billion people will move to urban areas by 2030 (UN 2006). More urban populations living in developing countries (one billion additional people alone in Asia by 2030) means more consumption of energy than before and more carbon dioxide emissions, spurred on by economic growth and industrialization. The process of urbanization and the rise in per capita energy use to a certain level is an irreversible phenomenon; therefore, cities will play an increasingly greater role in carbon dioxide emissions than ever before. This provides us with a greater opportunity to reduce energy use and develop low carbon societies primarily through energy optimization and distribution efficiencies in dense settlements.

However, despite the importance of cities, they have not been a unit of analysis for energy and carbon emissions in past decades. That has started to change in recent years as climate change issues are becoming politically important on the global stage and as decentralization of environmental governance in developing countries is taking place. Past research, both modeling and policy analyses, followed a strictly sectoral approach in cities, lacked spatial concerns, and mainly addressed only buildings and urban transport sectors. It clearly lacked an integrated approach and ignored a system-wide-integration in cities. If integrated approach is lacked, many important components of urban systems will left behind which lead to non-optimal solution for cities.

In recent years, cities have gained prominence in climate change debates and a number of new initiatives from both research and policy dimensions have been initiated. Given these divergent initiatives, there is a need to coordinate the global research community on urban energy and carbon modeling (in close consultation with urban adaptation to climate change) and develop a communication platform to discuss a multitude of issues associated with science, modeling and policy analyses in this area. To this end, the Urban and Regional Carbon Management (URCM) initiative of the Global Carbon Project (GCP) and the Energy Field of Study of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) have made a joint effort to contribute to these areas. This is especially important since the urban carbon agenda has started to enter into planning considerations in many cities in developed countries. In addition, many big-cities in developing countries are increasingly trying to understand the impacts of alternate urban development pathways.

Structure of the events

The events consisted of a symposium and a workshop. The symposium focused on the policy issues and the science-policy interface between knowledge and actions in urban carbon management. The Workshop was technical in nature and designed primarily for researchers to address urban energy and carbon modeling.

The goals of the Symposium (February 4) were:

  • To highlight the importance of urban energy and carbon in solving global carbon problems
  • To present and discuss a state-of-art knowledge from the scientific perspective
  • To share policy development trends in mega-cities in relation to energy and carbon management and critical research areas for which urban decision-makers are seeking guidance from science
  • To assess the scale of disconnect between science and the needs for decisions makers in urban energy and carbon management area and to explore how to bridge such disconnects.

The goals of the Workshop (February 5-6) were:

  • To develop an international urban energy and carbon modeling forum to create and share knowledge and expertise on modeling approaches, models, modelers, and their results
  • To encourage the development of a comprehensive urban model that can assess alternate urban development pathways and urban practices in an integrated manner with urban energy and carbon as key (but not exclusive) components
  • To encourage and conduct cross-city comparative case studies on urban carbon management
  • To encourage to create and share urban scale data following a common template to increase compatibility and accessibility

This event was built upon the outcomes and achievements of the following past activities:

Presentations

International Symposium on Urban Energy and Carbon Management: Challenges for Science and Policy, February 4, 2008

Opening session

  • Facilitator: Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal, Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan.
Welcoming addresses
  • Professor Sudip K. Rakshit, Vice President for Research, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand
  • Dr. Michael Raupach, Co-Chair, Scientific Steering Committee of Global Carbon Project, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia.
Opening remarks
  • Mr. Surendra Shrestha, Director, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Environment Program, Thailand.
  • Mr. Rae Kwon Chung, Director, Environment and Sustainable Development Division, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Thailand.

Session 1. Overview

Chair: Professor Hidefumi Imura, Professor of Graduate School of Environmental Sciences, Nagoya University, Japan

Session 2. Urban energy and carbon scenarios and lessons for management

Chair: Dr. Michael Raupach, Co-Chair, Scientific Steering Committee of Global Carbon Project, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia.

Session 3. Urban energy and carbon scenarios in developing Asian mega-cities

Chair: Professor Ram M. Shrestha, Professor of Energy Field of Study, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand

International Workshop on Urban Energy and Carbon Modeling, February 5-6, 2008

Welcoming Remarks

  • Welcome on behalf of organizers, Professor Ram M. Shrestha, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.
  • Goals and objectives of this workshop, Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal, Global Carbon Project, Japan.

Session 1: Setting the stage - Global carbon emission modeling and spatially explicit analyses

Chair: Dr. Patricia Romero Lankao, Institute for Society and Environment, National Center for Atmospheric Research, United State

Session 2: Urban form, energy and carbon modeling

Chair: Professor Ram M. Shrestha, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.

Session 3. Accounting and modeling urban dynamics for energy and carbon analyses: techniques and perspectives

Chair: Professor Hidefumi Imura, Nagoya University, Japan.

Session 4: Energy and carbon emissions and modeling for Asian mega-cities

Chair: Professor Harry R. Clarke, La Trobe University, Australia.

Session 5: Developing a common front amongst existing and emerging scientific initiatives on urban energy and carbon

Chair: Dr. Michael Raupach, Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization, Canberra, Australia.

Participants

List of Participants(pdf, 0.09MB)

Report

Urban Energy and Climate Modeling Forum formed

The Global Carbon Project (GCP), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) jointly organized International Symposium on “Urban Energy and Carbon Management: Challenges for Science and Policy” on February 4, 2008 and International Workshop on “Urban Energy and Carbon Modeling” on February 5-6, 2008 at AIT Center. The symposium aimed to clarify scientific and policy issues surrounding urban energy and carbon management and to create a better linkage between science and policy. The symposium was attended by more than 45 prominent researchers from 12 countries representing key institutions from USA, Europe, South America, Australia and Asia including people from policy communities such as UNEP, UNESCAP and International Council for Local Environmental Initiative (ICLEI).

The workshop on February 5-6 discussed methodological approaches, data availability issues, energy & carbon modeling techniques and presented the urban energy and carbon modeling of 14 key cities including 12 leading world mega-cities. The workshop was attended by 35 experts from prominent research and academic institutions from 12 countries working on urban energy and carbon. The events decided to establish Urban Energy and Climate Modeling Forum, and further discussed concrete research collaboration opportunities, ways to bridge data gaps and to make publications in established international journals to enhance the state of knowledge in the area of urban energy and carbon management.

Summary of Discussion Session

Top challenges/questions in urban energy and carbon modeling(pdf, 0.03MB)

Press Coverage

News covered by The Nation, Thailand’s leading national English newspaper.

Also Available online at: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/read.php?newsid=30064787

Carbon Neutral Event

The event was a Carbon Neutral Event. All emissions related to the event such as travel and accommodation of participants and speakers were offset by purchasing high quality carbon credits. (See Carbon Neutral presentation).

Contact

Shobhakar Dhakal, Global Carbon Project
Ram M. Shrestha (ram[AT]ait.ac.th), Asian Institute of Technology