VIRTUAL: Livable Cities – New York

Abstract

Urban sustainability will be the harbinger of global efforts to address climate change. The energy sector — in terms of fuel demand, use, equipment and artefacts, and related infrastructure — is going to be at the centre of this sustainability transition. The transition of energy systems at the urban scale will not only need to address global and national concerns of GHG emissions reduction and energy security but also heed the needs, welfare, and equity concerns of the local population. This will involve incorporating the multiple local dimensions of energy systems that are often obscured in large-scale modelling exercises that, in turn, typically aim for normative climate futures. But how should these futures be envisioned in the context of the urban scale when energy systems are increasingly being recognised as complex systems? Can an ideal vision be possible in an ever-changing, uncertain world? If not, what strategies should policymakers and practitioners undertake to channel or drive the energy transition and in what direction? Underpinning the arguments in a multidisciplinary literature review of the conceptualisation of futures and visions in complexity studies, futures and foresight studies, urban studies, and energy studies scholarship, this paper will attempt to answer of these questions. We also hope to offer practical approaches and framing for the co-production of urban energy futures that embrace the complexity and uncertainties upfront.