Is the end in sight for urban pollution?

In 1800, only 3% of people lived in urban areas. A century later, that figure stood at 14%.

Today, most developed nations are about 74% urban – and that figure is growing.

Urbanisation is happening quickly in many less wealthy countries, where resources and employment are increasingly focussed in megacities like Lagos in Nigeria, Dhaka in Bangladesh and Karachi in Pakistan.

Alongside that urbanisation is an increasing focus on the need to decarbonise our energy supply in order to mitigate climate change.

So it’s no surprise that the environment in our cities is increasingly front and centre in debates over humanity’s future.

Scottish Renewables’ first Low-Carbon Cities Conference is being held in Edinburgh on February 22, and will examine some of fascinating opportunities and challenges presented by this transition.

The event has already created headlines with news that driverless electric vehicles could make car parks ‘obsolete’ in the cities of the future.

Smart cities analyst Simon Tricker, speaking ahead of his appearance at the conference, said:

“Self-driving cars won’t need parking spaces in cities – they’re likely to be rented rather than owned and will just head off and carry out their next journey after dropping passengers. Many car parking spaces which we now take for granted will simply become obsolete.”

Simon will be speaking at the event alongside Professor Jill Anable, Chair in Transport and Energy at the University of Leeds’ Institute for Transport Studies.
She’s an expert in not just the technology behind our move to cleaner transport alternatives like hydrogen and electric vehicles, but also in how people use transport to navigate cities, and how that process can be made simpler, more efficient and greener.

Transport is one of the key issues in the move to smarter, low-carbon cities.
Also speaking at the event is Sam Greer, Engineering Director of Stagecoach UK Bus.

In July (2016) the company became the first UK bus operator, alongside manufacturer Optare, to implement an innovative modification to its electric vehicles in Inverness which allows them to run for longer in between charging sessions.

Also crucial in the switch to low-carbon cities is the search for increasingly green and sustainable solutions for heating our homes, businesses and industrial processes.
James Higgins of SGN, managers of a pipe network which distributes natural and green gas to 5.9 million homes and businesses across Scotland and the south of England, is speaking at the event.

He’ll talk about the company’s drive to “take the carbon element out of gas” by injecting green gas like hydrogen into the grid – and the challenges doing so presents.
Headline sponsor Engie are also speaking at the February 22 conference, which is being held in the COSLA conference centre in Edinburgh.

Richard Long, the company’s Head of Business Development, will discuss the innovations that can unlock Scotland’s low-carbon cities and address can they be integrated into our current urban environments.

That session, titled ‘Integrating technologies and changing behaviour’, will also look at the behavioural and cultural changes we need to promote, and will ask what incentives are needed to drive this change.

The potential gains for Scotland in developing expertise in low-carbon city infrastructure are enormous.

The experience gained from the country’s transition to a renewable energy system gives us an advantage on the world stage.

Events like the Scottish Renewables’ Low-Carbon Cities Conference will help set that agenda, and with so much to cover, February 22 is sure to be an interesting day.

• Blog by Jenny Hogan, Director of Policy, Scottish Renewables