Task Force on "Energy Efficiency and Urban Development"

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The Task Force "Energy efficiency and urban development - For policy recommendations to the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED)" was launched in 2008. Laurence Tubiana, director of IDDRI, and Pr Jiang Yi, director of the Building Energy Research Center at Tsinghua University, are co-chairs of this Task Force.

The general objective of the Task Force was to address the energy dimensions of the urban development in China in the perspective of sustainability.

In industrialised countries, the share of building and transport in total energy consumption has been growing steadily along with the GDP per capita for the last four decades. In OECD as well as in the EU, energy consumption in building and transport is today close to two thirds of total energy consumption. The main drivers of these evolutions have been consumption patterns and urban sprawl, which are closely inter-related. The challenge is now to build societies in a world of high energy prices: patterns of urban development, together with infrastructure choices, will determine energy demand trends in the long run.

International experts conducted studies on policies and measures to be implemented in order to disconnect urban energy consumption and economic development, while satisfying people’s increasing demand for comfort. The results of this international research cooperation affecting various sectors (urban planning, construction, transportation, sociology, etc.) made it possible to compare the development tracks of various countries in an effort to seek the development model tailed to China.

The Task Force's conclusions address urban energy consumption patterns and the measures China should take regarding urban planning, architecture, heating and transportation in urban areas. The findings were included into the CCICED’s recommendation report submitted to the Chinese government in November 2009 and sent to the ministries and provincial governments concerned at the same time.

Contact: Carine Barbier