Table 3.12 Sustainable Urban Energy Indicators and Benchmarks

Table 3.12 Sustainable Urban Energy Indicators and Benchmarks: Preliminary Proposal

SECTOR INDICATORSa BENCHMARKSb

Long-term and strategic goals • Share of renewable energy supply in fi nal energy Benchmarks should draw on a group of consumption comparable cities in terms of climate conditions • Carbon content of fi nal energy consumption and indicate the medium-level practice and best (kilogram equivalent CO2 per megajoule) practice, respectively. • Urban density indicator • Energy cost and affordability indicator Municipal services • Electric distribution losses See above. • Energy used for delivering and treating one cubic meter of water • Technical and nontechnical water losses • Public lighting energy effi ciency • Methane recovery from landfi lls and wastewater treatment plants Buildings • Residential buildings: cooling, heating, and lighting See above. effi ciency • Offi ce buildings: cooling, heating, and lighting effi ciency • Government buildings: cooling, heating, and lighting effi ciency • Energy effi ciency of key appliances Transport • Carbon emissions of passenger traffi c (kilogram See above. equivalent CO2 per person-kilometer)

Source: Author compilation (Feng Liu). Note: In the table, urban energy does not include industrial energy consumption. CO2 = carbon dioxide a. Indicators represent the current performance of a city. b. The benchmarks and indicators are the same set of metrics, but the benchmarks represent the medium-level practice and best practice, respectively, among a set of cities that are comparable in terms of climate conditions.

one set refl ecting the long-term strategic goals of sustainable urban energy planning and practice and the other highlighting the performance and effi ciency of energy consuming sectors in the cities. Table 3.12 represents a preliminary list of sustainable energy metrics or categories of metrics proposed for cities.

Barriers to Investing in Sustainable Energy in the Public Sector

Many sustainable energy actions may be justifi ed solely on the basis of cost-eff ectiveness. However, for various reasons, many investments are unrealized because of administrative, policy, and market barriers. Key issues include the following: (1) government agencies are typically unresponsive to price signals because they lack a commercial orientation; (2) public procedures for equipment and service procurement are generally infl exible to new approaches; and (3) constrained annual budgets restrict funding for capital upgrades, while restrictions on public fi nancing and typical one-year budget appropriations mean that the amortization of costs is diffi cult. A list of typical barriers categorized by stakeholder is provided in table 3.13.

Sustainable Energy Actions of City Government

The development of modern interconnected energy systems over the past century or so has gradually reduced the capacity of cities to understand and plan for their energy needs. Cities have become passive participants in the urban energy agenda, leaving most responsibilities to regional and national governments and the private sector. To pursue a sustainable urban energy agenda, cities need to become more