CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Gupta, Mukesh Kumar |
|---|---|
| Title | Clean and Efficient Energy Systems in Slums Transformation: The Case of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Summary | The combination of rapid urbanization and increasing wealth in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia (SA), may have an extremely negative impact on climate change. The positive trend of increased wealth leads to higher energy and resource consumption unless it is channeled towards climate-friendly development. However, at the same time, due to the inability of city governments to plan and provide affordable housing for the low-income segments of the urban population results in an increase of the concentration of urban poor or slums. The existence of slums is a crucial element of contemporary urbanization. The academic community and policy makers have acknowledged the acute need and associated challenges to provide adequate quality energy services to urban poor and enable their development in sustainable ways. However, the strategies and policies to tackle these challenges are yet to be fully understood especially in terms of reducing the adverse impacts on the environment while ensuring the provision of these energy services needed for their development. Since urbanization is projected to be very fast in the next few decades this is where carbon lock-in has to be avoided by early action towards sustainable urbanization. This research work aims to fulfill the above gap in knowledge and therefore supports the dual aims of applied policy impact and intellectual leadership. The aim of this research is to provide a picture of the possible slum development futures from energy perspective that may help governments, policy makers and organizations to choose and prepare for the desired urban future. This aim is achieved by estimating the final energy savings, and greenhouse gas emissions reduction potential of the slum households in 52 out of 57 countries in SSA and SA from the application of efficient technologies in the efficient scenario against the reference scenario until 2040. The study uses a bottom-up approach i.e. calculating final energy demand by end use on the level of individual households and aggregating these figures to the whole slum population. It includes detailed technological information for end-uses. Long range Energy Alternatives Planning System (LEAP) model is used for the analysis. The dissertation concludes that final energy savings from all regions in 2040 by achieving the efficient scenario is 474 billion kWh. The results suggest that overall 67% final energy savings can be achieved in 2040 from all end-uses and energy sources compared to the reference scenario. Cumulatively 46% final energy savings (5260 Billion Kilowatt-Hours) can be achieved in the study period (2014-2040) from the efficient scenario while all basic energy needs are fully met. A total reduction of 58 million tonnes GHG emissions are realized by the efficient scenario in 2040. The total cumulative GHG emissions reduction of 550 million tonnes CO2e can be realized during the study period by the efficient scenario. When compared to the reference scenario, energy savings and emission reduction potential are significant. Even though 550 million tonnes or roughly half a gigaton GHG emissions reduction achieved in the study period may seem small from the global environmental perspective, the dissertation has shown that the developmental benefits or co-benefits as a result of these energy efficiency actions are critical for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The above results inform that both environmental and developmental objectives can be achieved by providing clean and sustainable energy sources to slum households. Communicating the role of developmental benefits that the mitigation action brings are hence important in terms of gaining traction for the effective climate change mitigation action. Further, in order to achieve the efficient scenario, slum upgrading programs should be integrated with the fuel subsidies together with appliance standards, labeling, and financing schemes (to meet the challenge of high upfront cost of efficient appliances). In essence, the research aims to connect the dots between the Paris Agreement, SDGs and New Urban Agenda, in order to build a sustainable urban roadmap that brings the global urban poor community towards a better future. |
| Supervisor | Ürge-Vorsatz, Diana |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/gupta_mukesh.pdf |
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