Sustainable Cities — Insight

Today, more than half (56%) of the world’s citizens live in urban areas. In Ireland, two in every three people (64%) live in towns and cities. Ireland’s urbanisation has been rapid: in 1969, just half of the population lived in rural areas and urbanisation is expected to reach 75% by 2050. In recent decades, urbanisation combined with general population growth and an economic boom has dramatically increased the footprint of Ireland’s cities. Much of this growth occurred without due regard for sustainable development. As Ireland sets out on a green transition, we must focus on making our cities sustainable.

Like the wider economy, Ireland’s cities run largely on fossil fuels. According to the United Nations, cities consume about 78% of the world’s energy and account for more than 60% of greenhouse gas emissions. Some cities buck this trend with vast and efficient public transport systems, district heating and high building standards. Others consist of poorly insulated homes, congested roads and highly polluting sources of heating. In Ireland, transport accounts for almost 18% of total emissions and almost all (94%) of these emissions come from road transport. Ireland has among the longest commute times in Europe, with many commuting into and around cities. Ireland’s buildings are among the hardest to heat in Europe, with heat loss rates (U-values) three times those of Sweden. With poor heat retention and a relatively high reliance on solid fuels and oil, Irish buildings have the highest emissions in Europe.

Net zero emissions commitments of Ireland and the EU

Much has to change. The European Union is committed to achieving a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. Ireland, for its part, has committed to reducing its emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Considering Ireland’s starting point relative to many of our European counterparts, as mentioned above, significant action is required across the economy and society. Given the relative density of our urban areas, policies that improve the urban building stock, enable the transition to cleaner energy sources and expand the public transport network offer a fast and effective way to improve the headline figures for Ireland overall. A fair and successful green transition requires significant investment in sustainable urban infrastructure. Getting that investment right from the start will ensure that cities are pleasant and healthy places to live and work, and minimise the need for costly retrospective measures to ‘fix’ poor urban development.

As cities across the world work to become more sustainable, they can learn from each other’s experiences and avoid repeating mistakes. Having studied some of the journeys cities worldwide are embarking on, we have identified four clean-energy pathways. By implementing initiatives across these four pathways, Ireland’s urban areas can become more sustainable and more resilient to climate change.

1. Modernise regulations

As our previous analysis highlighted, having the funding and finance in place to complete the green transition is necessary, but it is not sufficient: the regulatory environment must enable the required investment. Ireland’s regulatory regime has been slow to respond to the needs of those working towards Ireland’s net zero ambition. Green hydrogen (hydrogen produced from renewable energy) will have a key role to play in decarbonising Ireland’s hard-to-electrify sectors. This must be underpinned by a national hydrogen strategy that reviews existing regulations, considers where changes are required and signals to the market the direction of travel in terms of the development of this important sector. While the Government has consulted on a hydrogen strategy, the consultation report has yet to be published. An ambitious hydrogen strategy will go hand in hand with plans to develop offshore wind farms on Ireland’s west coast, allowing Ireland to become an energy exporter, as discussed below.

Providing safe harbour to the wind industry: Bilbao and Shannon-Foynes

Bilbao, long an industrial centre, has become a wind industry hub in recent years. Not content to accept industrial decline, Bilbao Port is now home to two wind turbine manufacturers. In 2021 alone, the port handled 150,000 tonnes of wind power components. As Ireland seeks to develop its offshore wind sector, the port of Shannon-Foynes can play a central role. There is the potential to develop 30GW of floating offshore wind off Ireland’s west coast, which is six times Ireland’s current domestic demand. This, combined with the production of green hydrogen, could allow Ireland to become an energy exporter. The port also provides an ideal location for turbine assembly and deployment, along with onshore support and supply chain services.

Reducing car dependency: Paris and Dublin

In 2022, Paris decided to ban through traffic from the city centre with effect from 2024. This is expected to reduce the number of car journeys by half. Given Paris’s high density and extensive public transport system, people have plenty of other options to move around the city. In the Irish context, poor public transport networks make it difficult to reduce car dependency. Nonetheless, the roll-out of Low Traffic Networks (LTNs), park-and-ride facilities and increased investment in active and public transport will reduce dependency over time, particularly in large urban centres such as Dublin. A number of LTNs have already been implemented, including in the Grangegorman neighbourhood in Dublin’s city centre, which is home to a new campus for TU Dublin as well as schools and other public amenities. Successful implementation of LTNs, complete with the necessary stakeholder engagement, will lead to greater demand for such initiatives. The National Transport Authority has committed to supporting communities in implementing LTNs, where desired.

2. Plan for energy resilience and sustainability

According to Engineers Ireland, Ireland faces an energy trilemma where we must meet our energy needs while ensuring that we (i) increase sustainable energy production, (ii) keep our energy supply secure, and (iii) maintain affordability. Diversity of supply and investment in infrastructure, such as interconnectors and energy storage, are essential in overcoming this trilemma. Challenges in delivering such critical infrastructure in Ireland are well documented. Cities around the world show how this can be done and there are some promising examples from closer to home.

Renewably-powered cities: Burlington and Cloughjordan

Vermont’s largest city, Burlington, was the first US city powered completely by renewable energy. The population of 42,000 once relied mostly on coal but now receives their power from four renewable sources: biomass, hydro, wind and solar. The city intends to have net zero emissions by 2030. The Cloughjordan Ecovillage in Tipperary has the lowest ecological footprint of any settlement in Ireland. It hosts a district heating network powered by a wood chip boiler, a 500m2 solar panel array, a hostel and an enterprise centre. The village is now home to 130 people and has been recognised internationally. Many of the greatest cities are formed of a collection of small villages. In this way, Cloughjordan may influence the development of urban communities.

District heating schemes: Brescia and Dublin

Large factories near cities produce significant emissions – some in the form of waste heat. A steel mill about two miles from the city centre in Brescia embarked upon a district heating project. Waste heat from the steelmaking process is recovered and distributed through the city’s district heating system, providing enough heat for 2,000 families. The project yields a CO2 reduction of 10,000 tonnes annually. Dublin has had mixed success with district heating. In Tallaght, waste heat from a data centre is harnessed to heat the nearby South Dublin County Council offices and the TU Dublin campus. TU Dublin is also assessing the feasibility of geothermal district heating at its city campus. However, a district heating system for Ringsend in Dublin, which has been in the pipeline for years and has the capacity to heat 80,000 homes, has been slow to progress.

3. Invest in research and development

We cannot build the world of tomorrow without research and development (R&D) today. We must therefore recognise the role of R&D within Ireland in making our green transition possible. As an international hub for technology firms, Ireland has the potential to make digitalisation a core part of how we decarbonise our economy, building smart cities and communities. Combined public and private investment in digitalisation R&D will transform our economy.

Smart cities: Zurich and Cork

The Swiss city of Zurich is raising the bar for smart cities. It has implemented a Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) fibre optic network, which enables data collection in a simple and cost-efficient manner. The network has been used to monitor air quality, water levels and parking spaces, and the city continues to develop new uses for the technology. Meanwhile, Cork has been named among the participants in the EU Cities Mission for climate-neutral smart cities by 2030. The Mission will receive €360m of Horizon Europe funding to start the innovation path to climate neutrality by 2030. The research and innovation paths will focus on clean mobility, energy efficiency and green urban planning, enabling cities to build joint initiatives with other EU programmes. Cork has also pursued a number of projects as part of the All Ireland Smart Cities Forum, including social housing retrofitting and smart trees, and it has become the first local authority to produce an air quality strategy.

Crowdsourcing ideas and driving change: Helsinki and Galway

Cities can drive innovation by creating the right incentives and collaborating with research institutions. The Helsinki Energy Challenge was launched in 2021. It was a 12-month, €1m crowdsourced challenge open to start-ups, larger companies, research institutions, universities, individual experts and consortiums. The goal was to devise solutions to decarbonise the heating of Helsinki using as little biomass as possible. The city received 252 applications from 35 countries. Four teams were selected as winners to further develop their ideas, including a proposal to build reservoirs of hot seawater that would drive heat pumps. Meanwhile, in Ireland, ConstructInnovate is a national construction technology centre based at the University of Galway. This centre drives research and innovation in digital adoption, modern construction methods and sustainability.

4. Rethink public-private partnerships

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are a very useful method of contracting to deliver infrastructure. In Ireland, they have been successfully deployed to develop our motorway network, build schools and now deliver much-needed social housing. They involve a lot of up-front work, de-risking projects and ensuring that the assets built are robust and well-maintained into the future. They also encourage more private sector involvement in infrastructure, bringing new technology and innovation into projects. In addition, PPPs allow governments and public bodies to retain ownership of the infrastructure assets, an important feature for long-term public ownership. Rethinking PPPs in an Irish sense involves broadening out the areas where this model can be deployed to help realise our net zero ambition. Areas where the model (or a variation of the model) can be deployed include district heating, battery storage, offshore grid infrastructure, bus and train fleets, electric vehicle (EV) charging, sustainable buildings and port infrastructure.

EV charging: Oslo and Dublin

While cities must reduce car dependency to become more sustainable, they must also provide for EV use. Ireland’s EV infrastructure (charging network) is not currently sufficient. For example, in 2022, Dublin had 1.16 EV charging bays per square kilometre, compared to 5.47 charging bays per square kilometre in Oslo (a city also taking significant steps to reduce car dependency). Considerable investment is required. The Government’s Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Strategy and accompanying plan set out a number of schemes that aim to increase EV charger density. Some of these schemes, such as the Neighbourhood Charging Scheme, are targeted at local authorities and provide a route for cities to expand their charging networks. The network can be further expanded through concession PPPs, whereby private developers deliver EV charging infrastructure and the Government carries the revenue risk until the demand for EV charging is sufficient for user charges to cover the developer’s costs.

Public transport: Sydney and Dublin

The first operational line of Sydney Metro, the Metro North West Line, opened in 2019. The operations, trains and systems on the line are provided through a PPP. Northwest Rapid Transit (NRT), the winning operator, provided six-car trains operating every four minutes during peak hours, with future-proofing to allow eight-car trains. As the service is automated, this arrangement provides the required capacity and frequency for customers without additional operational costs while reducing upfront capital costs and maintenance costs associated with longer trainsets. Dublin’s MetroLink will also be an automated system and is set to be operated under a PPP arrangement, covering rolling stock and signalling systems over 25 years.

The examples above illustrate how cities, big and small, can set out on clean-energy pathways. Each pathway requires working with a range of stakeholders, including some who may have competing needs. These stakeholders include regulators, power generators, power transmission and distribution companies, industry and consumers. Only by laying the proper groundwork can people be brought on board and positive outcomes maximised. Stakeholder engagement is all the more essential in the case of Ireland’s cities, which have less administrative and financial autonomy than cities such as Paris or Berlin – Ireland has the lowest level of local autonomy in the European Union. Effective stakeholder engagement can help city authorities achieve buy-in at the national level to provide the funding and policy frameworks required for cities to deliver.

A fair transition must also be tech-enabled, ensuring that living standards can be protected and improved. To maximise the benefits of EVs, active and public transport, battery storage and energy efficiency technology, we must build a smart and connected economy. Ireland is in a strong position, hosting many of the world’s leading technology companies and having a digitally proficient population. The continued rollout of critical infrastructure through the National Broadband Plan will support this.

With a population that continues to grow rapidly and become more urban, Ireland must seize the opportunity to build more sustainable cities. A successful and sustainable green transition requires bringing people on board and embracing the technology that will enable shorter, cleaner commutes, warmer homes and a cleaner environment. Outlining and committing to clean energy pathways enables the public and private sectors to put the resources in place and build the necessary capacity to deliver the required investment in our cities and towns.

Summary

The four pathways to more sustainable Irish cities are:

Modernise regulations

Put in place regulations that will encourage and enable sustainable investment and innovation.

Plan for energy resilience and sustainability

We must increase sustainable energy production, provide more energy security and protect affordability.

Invest in Research and Development (R&D)

Investment can unlock huge opportunities in areas such as digitalisation, which has the potential to transform the economy.

Rethink Public Private Partnerships (PPPs)

We can broaden the use of PPPs to drive investment throughout the economy, including battery storage, EV charging and public transport.