What’s the goal?

The project URBAN LEARNING aims to mainstream and institutionalise integrative urban energy planning within city administrations and is designed as project from cities for cities. The focus is put on the governance processes related to the (re-) development of urban sites.

Why is this essential?

Many cities face enormous pressure to provide new homes and infrastructure, sustainable and affordable at the same time. They have annual population growth rates between 1-2% meaning that areas the sizes of small towns have to be built and refurbished each year. Technological innovations of renewable energy solutions, changes of the energy markets and ambitious energy and CO₂ reduction goals of cities require a functional cooperation between the actors of the energy demand with the supply side, in order to realise significant energy reductions at lowest costs.  

In cities, the highest amount of final energy consumption is used for buildings and mobility (around 60-70%). Today considerable reductions of (fossil) energy consumption are possible in these sectors due to technological innovations as well as due to changes in paradigms such as the compact city/city of short distances. URBAN LEARNING is about pooling and exchanging knowledge how to implement feasible solutions for reduction of energy consumption and CO₂ in the urban planning processes.   

By doing so in a critical mass of cities from different climatic, economic and social conditions, replicability of the results will be high and findings from these cities will be relevant for many more, also smaller, European cities.