Accelerating the energy transition in European cities

(EurActiv, 5 Jun 2023) Achieving the green transition requires rapid and large-scale investment from cities, national governments and the private sector acting in unison, writes Mark Watts.

Mark Watts is the executive director of C40, a global network of mayors from the world’s leading cities who are working together to confront the climate crisis.

World leaders are meeting in Paris this week to discuss today’s global energy and climate crises. Cities are central to these discussions – and similar ones happening in Brussels and worldwide – because cities are responsible for more than 75% of global energy consumption.

Urban leaders across Europe and the rest of the world are at the forefront of the global energy transition. They recognise fossil gas not as a “transition” fuel but a major contributor to global heating and are leading the way in phasing out these planet-heating fuels. A continued, widespread reliance on fossil fuels, however, will lead us straight into climate disaster and will also prevent the EU from meeting its goal to become carbon neutral.

Recent events have shown how fossil fuel-dependent economies expose ordinary people to price shocks. Last year, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated the wholesale energy price increase that followed the lifting of pandemic measures, driving record-breaking price spikes across Europe. The impacts of high prices were unequally distributed, with disadvantaged and vulnerable groups spending a larger share of their budget on energy than their higher-income peers.

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EurActiv, 5 Jun 2023: Accelerating the energy transition in European cities