Cities in the 21st Century: Sustainable energy for sustainable cities

The event provides an overview of the main challenges of urbanization process in the 21st century, to stimulate the discussion among different stakeholders on rethinking sustainable cities. Urbanization is analyzed as a multi-faceted process that challenges several aspects of modern society, bringing acute social inequalities and serious environmental issues. Understanding energy and material flows through cities lies at the heart of developing sustainable cities, to address concerns over the magnitudes and inequities of global resource flows. In this context, electric utilities play a key role in sustainable transition of cities, enabling energy services and acting as key partner of public institutions in the continuous search for solutions to main urban challenges: socio-economic inequalities, energy and resource efficiency, urban resilience to climate change. The event stages the presentation of the book “Cities in the 21st Century”, Eds. O.Nello and R.Mele, (Routledge), analyzing multiple aspects of urban challenges, as socio-economic power of the global city network, urban ecosystems, social inequalities. It combines a multi-level perspective with both papers from top scholars and real case studies implemented in over 25 cities of 5 continents. Second part of the event focuses on energy use in slums: people in the lower income bracket use low energy efficient equipment, paying more for the same service. To address this point Enel Foundation, with UN-Habitat and Politecnico di Milano, developed a research to analyze energy services and user’s behavior in informal settlements, surveying dwellers with community-based organizations and the electric utility. Moreover, a comprehensive methodology – PIA Performance Impact Assessment - has been developed to assess the socio-economic, infrastructural and environmental impacts of improved energy access. These results are discussed among academic and electric company experts, and Un-Habitat focusing on recommendations to improve quality of life, reducin