Decarbonising Cities ― Mainstreaming Low Carbon Urban Development

This book sets out some positive directions to move forward including government policy and regulatory options, an innovative GRID (Greening, Regenerative, Improvement Districts) scheme that can assist with funding and management, and the first steps towards an innovative carbon credit scheme for the built environment.

Decarbonising cities is a global agenda with huge significance for the future of urban civilisation. Global demonstrations have shown that technology and design issues are largely solved. However, the mainstreaming of low carbon urban development, particularly at the precinct scale, currently lacks sufficient: standards for measuring carbon covering operational, embodied and transport emissions; assessment and decision-making tools to assist in design options; certifying processes for carbon neutrality within the built environment; and accreditation processes for enabling carbon credits to be generated from precinct-wide urban development.

Numerous barriers are currently hindering greater adoption of high performance, low carbon developments, many of which relate to implementation and governance. How to enable and manage precinct-scale renewables and other low carbon technologies within an urban setting is a particular challenge.

This book summarises the research undertaken by Dr Vanessa Rauland during her PhD, which was guided by Professor Peter Newman. Vanessa spent over four years coordinating an Australian Research Council (ARC) Industry Linkage Grant titled ‘Decarbonising Cities and Regions’ and currently lectures at Curtin University in the areas of Climate Policy and Decarbonising Cities. Peter is a Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University and has been working and conducting research on cities for over forty years. He has published 15 books on a range of urban sustainability issues, making him one of the most well known authors in this field. He sits on the Board of Infrastructure Australia and is a lead author on Transport in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.