News from Italy

Sustainable Cities:

Optimizing the Demand and Consumption of Energy and Improving Quality of Life

Federico M. Butera, professor at the Polytechnic of Milan, Department of Science and Technology of the Built Environment, gave a presentation today during the second day of the 6th International Forum of Information for the Safeguarding of Nature organized by Greenaccord. 

Butera explained the role of the city in the realm of concrete sustainable development and illustrated the model that we are exporting to the developing world.

From his analysis we see that developing countries consume more than industrialized ones in all sectors of life, because developing countries have less access to efficient technologies and, in addition, because their governments do not make correct decisions in that they follow almost exclusively the consumer model.  In particular, Professor Butera’s research is about the world of building and shows how “each week it’s as if one built the equivalent of a city with a million inhabitants.”

 “We need to abandon as quickly as possible the consumer approach to the construction of buildings, both public and private – underlined Butera – and use an eco-sustainable approach with houses and cities that allow us to optimize the demand and consumption of energy.

In fact, the sustainability of a city will be a determining factor to for getting to the year 2050 with an intact environment.

For sustainable development for the cities of the future, we need to follow four fundamental principles.

Minimize demand for energy by recreating urban areas, which guarantees a lesser use of energy for the same well-being and comfort.  Build structure shaving thought about heating obtained from passive solar energy during the winter and the benefit of ventilation during the summer, which represent an simple example of energy conservation.

Reduce waste of energy by using technologies with higher output but fewer emissions.  Gradually abandon the use of gas-powered heaters in favor of a more efficient source, such as heat pumps, which are an important example of efficiency.

Recycling energy and materials to create systems that are almost self-sufficient from an energetic standpoint.

Substituting fossil fuels with renewables, moving towards “zero emissions” structures that reduce our dependence on petroleum.

All of this, obviously, requires a considerable cultural revolution – concluded the Professor – but it is much less costly than one would imagine.  BedZed, a city in England, represents a perfect example of an already-existing sustainable city.  Much like it are the projects presented at Dongtan and Huairou in China (designed by Prof.Butera) and at Masdar in Dubai”.

Sergio Castellari, of IPCC Italy, opened the second day of 6th International Forum of Information for the Safeguarding of Nature organized by Greenaccord with his talk “Climate change and Poverty.”

Castellari called attention to current climate changes, but above all to the consequences that these may have in the coming years on the global ecosystem.

“Global warming – he underlined – is indisputable.  From the 1970s to today the global surface temperature has increased at the rate of 0.15 degrees Celsius each decade, even if in the last ten years the growth has slackened a bit.

For the 21st century the estimates are that global warming will be between 2 and 4 degrees Celsius.  This will result in a series of negative effects which, unfortunately, will fall more heavily upon the countries of the Global South, because there the impact will be more acute and there is a lesser capacity, above all financial, to react to the change.

The violence of tropical cyclones and the level of the oceans will increase, with heavy repercussions for the world’s coastal populations.  In 2050 it is possible that some coastal zones, in particular those in the Asian mega-delta, will play host to the migrations of more than a million people.

If in the next century the surface temperature of the planet increases by between 1.5 and 2.5 degrees Celsius, a very probable scenario, between 20 and 30% of earth’s plants and animals risk extinction.

From 1970 to today – continued Castellari – greenhouse gas emissions have increased 70% and the responsibility lay mainly with the developed countries.  In coming years, on the other hand, it is estimated that 60% of this increase will be due to developing countries.  The stabilization of greenhouse gases is of fundamental importance for limiting the warming of the planet and the consequent negative effects. But all this does not take into account the principles of equality, that is to say the needs of the developing countries.

On the basis of the recent Bali Accord – concluded Castellari – the situation is not beyond the point of no return and this stabilization is possible by respecting a few fundamental points: reduce as soon a possible CO2 emissions, in particular in the developed countries; reinforce and widen the flexible mechanisms that put developed and developing countries in contact, in particular for transfer of technology; create plans for the gradual reduction of greenhouse gases in developing countries; sustain the adaptation of the countries of the Global South.”