Coalition for Supporting Cities To Deliver Integrated Urban Energy Systems

Cities use over two-thirds of the world’s energy and play a unique role as planners and managers of infrastructure to integrate energy systems across buildings, transport, heating/cooling, industry, and power grids. This integration is crucial to deliver improved efficiency, circularity, and greater use of renewables in cities and thereby accelerate the transition to a clean, cost-effective, resilient, net-zero energy system by 2050. Globally, cities are already proving their critical role in delivering the energy transition, but the pace and scale of action need to increase given the urgency of reducing energy-sector emissions and preparing cities for climate shocks. With stronger international cooperation, sufficient capacity support and enabling policy and finance, cities can rise to the challenge of the energy transition.

Cities and municipalities, national governments, companies, utilities, and other stakeholders working on urban issues are invited to sign up to a Coalition for supporting cities to deliver Integrated Urban Energy Systems being coordinated by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with Global Covenant of Mayors, Mission Innovation, European Commission, and the World Economic Forum. To sign up to the Coalition, stakeholders are asked to review and commit to the Integrated Urban Energy Systems principles available here . As part of this process, stakeholders are also requested to register their own Energy Compacts to UN Energy, outlining their own actions towards delivering Integrated Urban Energy Systems; guidelines for this are available here . The Coalition will be launched officially on the margins of the High-level Dialogue on Energy during an event on Energy Action Day on September 16th at 0915 EST (register here) and aims to build and align support to cities globally on delivering net-zero urban energy.

A workshop will be hosted on September 9th at 0900 EST for participants to further understand and discuss opportunities for including integrated urban energy in Energy Compacts. Register here.

For more information and to send the signed Principles document, please email benjamin.hickman@un.org