Urban Climate Change Mitigation in Europe: Looking at and beyond the Role of Population Density

AbstractAs climate change mitigation becomes pervasive on all spatial scales, mitigation options related to urban spatial planning and behavioral change become increasingly important. Because transport energy consumption seems to scale inversely with population density, increased attention focuses o...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of urban planning and development 2014-03, Vol.140 (1)
Main Authors: Baur, Albert Hans, Thess, Maximilian, Kleinschmit, Birgit, Creutzig, Felix
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Climate change
Econometric analysis
Emission analysis
Greenhouse gases
Households
Population density
Technical Papers
Transport
Urban areas
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:AbstractAs climate change mitigation becomes pervasive on all spatial scales, mitigation options related to urban spatial planning and behavioral change become increasingly important. Because transport energy consumption seems to scale inversely with population density, increased attention focuses on the role of urban form. This study specifically analyzes the importance of population density for the reduction of urban greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. For this, drivers of both carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from transport (for 134 cities) and total urban greenhouse gas emissions (CO2eq emissions) of 62 cities across Europe are investigated. Results indicate that population density is not, per se, a strong determinant of greenhouse gas emissions in European cities. Crucially, the spatial scale of the analysis matters and national influences modulate CO2eq emissions in the analyzed urban areas. Results show that greenhouse gas emissions of European urbanites increase significantly with decreasing household sizes and increasing personal wealth. Although the results are bound by data quality, it is assumed that the relative similarity of European cities is also leading to a lesser degree of importance of population density with respect to climate change mitigation. The results further encourage more thorough analyses of the role of household size and personal wealth for effective mitigation of climate change, additional spatially explicit econometric studies, and detailed, city-specific causal models of urban areas.
ISSN:0733-9488
1943-5444
DOI:10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000165