Multi-sector mitigation strategies at the neighbourhood scale

Climate change mitigation in urban areas requires a portfolio of policies and practices that are implemented across a range of scales and sectors. The local scale allows the development and implementation of site specific strategies to address climate change in urban areas that have been proven to be more efficient, especially within buildings. But these must be within the wider context of transport and other energy consumption. A unique integrated assessment methodology for the analysis of energy at the neighbourhood scale that considers the key sectors of buildings, transport and outdoor lighting has been developed. The influence of key drivers of energy consumption: land use, technology, infrastructure design, are considered to assess how neighbourhood choices impact upon wider energy usage, such as transport emissions. Applied to a neighbourhood in Italy, results show that building retrofit has the greatest benefit, of up to 60%. However, by transitioning to a mixed land use neighbourhood, growing local employment and improving the transit network, reductions of 80% can be achieved in line with the requirements of the Paris Agreement. The method highlights the importance of taking a multi-sector and multi-scale approach to considering neighbourhood mitigation.