July 2021

Controlling The Weather Could Have Serious Global Implications (28 July 2021): As the world gets warmer, regions around the world are experiencing sweltering heat waves and setting records for high temperatures almost every passing year. This week the Middle East has been suffering from soaring temperatures reaching a truly hellish 125 degrees. These dangerously high temperatures come as the Arabian Gulf countries continue to experience the longest recorded meteorological drought, clocking in at a whopping twenty years. “The general pattern of the climate in the region is warming. There is warming over the seas and sea surfaces, a rise in maximum temperatures, and drying precipitation. In addition, there has been an increase in the number of Category 4 and 5 severe tropical cyclones, which is critical when we look at the economy,” Dr. Said Alsarmi, a meteorological expert at the Gulf Cooperation Council, was quoted by the Gulf News earlier this year. (Source: Oil Price)

Germany Needs To Significantly Speed Up Wind Power Installations (27 July 2021): Even the 62-percent yearly jump in wind capacity installations in Germany in the first half of 2021 is not enough to meet the national and EU level of wind additions, wind power association BWE and VDMA engineering association said on Tuesday. During the first half of 2021, Germany installed 971 megawatts (MW) of wind capacity, a surge of 62 percent compared to the same period of 2020. Despite the strong growth and evidence that wind power installations are back on track after the pandemic, Germany needs a lot more capacity additions if it wants to meet its renewable energy targets and national and EU goals of emissions reductions, the associations said. Germany’s target is to install just below 4,000 MW wind capacity every year under a 2021 renewables act. (Source: Oil Price)

Automakers Take Multi-Billion Profit Hit As Battery Metals Boom (26 July 2021): Rising prices of critical electric vehicle (EV) metals are denting the profits of global automakers, just as a growing number of legacy carmakers are investing more in zero-emission vehicles. The rally in lithium and copper prices—key battery metals—comes at a time when the global auto industry faces increased supply chain pricing pressure from the chip shortage and higher prices of steel and other input materials. The rally in the prices of raw materials highlights the challenges the industry, and the world, face in accelerating the production and sales of EVs to fight the worst effects of climate change. The higher prices of raw materials, including of the key battery metals, is set to cost the six largest automakers in Japan as much as US$9 billion (or 1 trillion Japanese yen) this fiscal year, Nikkei Asia reports, citing company statements and estimates from Goldman Sachs Japan. This cost headache represents 30 percent of the total profit forecasts of the six biggest Japanese carmakers. (Source: Oil Price)

Big Oil Faces Mounting Pressure To Cut Upstream Emissions (25 July 2021): Pressure is mounting on the oil and gas sector to clean up its act and reduce emissions from operations, the so-called Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Many of Europe’s largest oil corporations, including Shell, BP, Eni, Repsol, and Total, have imposed their own targets to cut carbon intensity from their upstream operations as they have pledged to become net-zero emission businesses by 2050 or sooner. The pressure from investors and shareholders is also growing, including on the oil industry to reduce the so-called Scope 3 emissions—those emissions generated by the use of their products. Low-carbon power would be a key to cutting emissions, says Wood Mackenzie, which estimates that around two-thirds of emissions come from power consumption - production, processing, and liquefaction. (Source: Oil Price)

Clash Of the Energy Titans: Oil vs. Solar (23 July 2021): The war between the oil and gas industry and renewables has been raging for years—but this time the battle is a literal one, over land. This particular dispute is between Midway Solar—which has leased hundreds of acres of land in Pecos County, Texas—and two people who own the mineral rights to that land. But the dispute is merely a precursor to future battles between sprawling solar arrays and what lies beneath. According to the Houston Chronicle, this case could end up in the top court in Texas, setting a precedent for any future legal battles in the same vein. The conflict is simple: solar arrays take up a vast amount of space. While a land owner—a surface land owner, that is—can lease its land, like in this case, to a solar energy company for the purposes of putting in a massive solar array, someone owns the mineral rights to that land. (Source: Oil Price)

The Renewable Energy Waste Crisis Is Much Worse Than You Think (22 July 2021): Waste disposal is not a popular topic of discussion in the media when it comes to renewable energy. Most of the coverage that solar and wind power is getting is strongly positive, with a focus on falling costs and rising efficiencies, as well as government plans for huge increases in installed capacity. Yet problems tend to lurk and wait to spring up. Now, the waste problem is springing up. The International Renewable Energy Agency estimated in 2016 that unless we made significant changes to our treatment of solar panels, they could add up to 78 million tons of waste. The IRENA did not phrase it this way. It said that "recycling or repurposing solar PV panels at the end of their roughly 30-year lifetime can unlock an estimated stock of 78 million tonnes of raw materials and other valuable components globally by 2050." (Source: Oil Price)

America Looks For A Balance Between Oil Needs And Climate Reality (21 July 2021): It’s an eternal dispute - the need to meet consumer energy needs through oil and gas production versus the battle of climate change activists and green policy.  When President Biden came into office in January his stance on green policy was in stark contrast with his predecessor Donald Trump. Biden promises a Green New Deal under which he will pave the way for the banning of oil and gas drilling on public lands, protect a third of America’s land and ocean, introduce a government electric vehicle (EV) fleet, and move away from traditional fuel towards EV for the mail and military. Biden immediately re-joined the Paris Agreement in an effort to show the country and the world that he meant business, thereby leaving America’s oil and gas industry in a state of uncertainty about the future of the country’s black gold. (Source: Oil Price)

Bitcoin Miners Embrace Nuclear Power (20 July 2021): It’s time for Bitcoin miners to get serious about downsizing their carbon footprint. The worldwide cryptocurrency production sector is eating up an almost unfathomable amount of energy -- as much as entire nations. As of now, Bitcoin mining ranks between Colombia (a country of 50 million people) and Bangladesh (population 163 million) in terms of energy consumption. All told, Bitcoin networks account for an incredible 0.32% of the world’s energy consumption and a whopping  0.13% of global annual total carbon dioxide emissions.  The process of “mining” Bitcoin, while virtual, requires an enormous amount of resources because of the considerable computing power necessary to carry out the extremely complex calculations to solve the “proof-of-work” problems that make up the blockchain, the digital ledger that Bitcoin is built upon. Bitcoin is currently being singled out for its massive energy consumption over other cryptocurrencies, not only because it is more than twice the size of the next-most traded cryptocurrency, but because Bitcoin’s especially complex SHA-256 algorithm, which makes Bitcoin one of the most secure cryptocurrencies out there, also makes it one of the most energy-hungry. (Source: Oil Price)

Indiana Unveils Wireless Charging Highway For Electric Vehicles (19 July 2021): The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has begun the first phase of a project to transform a segment of the state's highway into wireless charging pavement for electric vehicles, according to local news WRTV. INDOT partnered with Advancing Sustainability through Power Infrastructure for Road Electrification (ASPIRE) Initiative, in a three-phase project that will use magnetizable concrete, developed by a German startup Magment GmbH, to allow seamless wireless charging of electric vehicles while in motion. "We're quite eager to see this first of its kind project unfold in Indiana," David Christensen, the ASPIRE Innovation Director, said. "This partnership that includes Magment, INDOT, Purdue University, and the larger ASPIRE consortium has great promise to really move the needle on technology development, which will, in turn, enable more positive impacts from deeper electric vehicle adoption." (Source: Oil Price)

One Man Just Sent The $30 Trillion ESG Revolution Into Overdrive (18 July 2021): With billions of dollars being invested into ESG funds last year, 2020 has been called a “tipping point” year for this mega-trend in global markets. And many are predicting that the ESG boom will continue this summer as investors all over the world may be looking to transform their portfolios by making huge bets on clean energy. But perhaps the biggest driver for these new industries is President Joe Biden’s $2.5 trillion energy transition plan, which looks set to boost everything from electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, roads, bridges and carbon capture technologies. Biden has called climate change “the number one issue facing humanity.” This is why CNBC says, Biden’s presidency could be a game changer for impact investing.” And Forbes explains, “Why Socially Responsible Investing Is Likely To Gain Momentum Under Biden.” But while there are still many things, we don’t know about how these policies will impact the American economy, this much is clear. (Source: Oil Price)

High Oil Prices Could Fuel EV Adoption (17 July 2021): As oil prices continue to rise and global demand is bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels, people could be buying into electric vehicles (EV) as an alternative to expensive fuel costs.  The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that rising oil prices are expected to encourage people to shift away from traditional vehicles and increase the uptake of EVs. However, this could be detrimental to the recovery of the global economy. With oil prices hitting $77 a barrel this July, due to higher demand and OPEC+ production cuts aimed at raising the benchmark price of oil, the threat of ever-increasing fuel prices is worrying for consumers who are still overcoming the economic hit of the pandemic. The IEA stated of the situation, “While prices at these levels could increase the pace of electrification of the transport sector and help accelerate energy transitions, they could also put a drag on the economic recovery, particularly in emerging and developing countries.” (Source: Oil Price)

Biden, Merkel Agree To Disagree On Nord Stream 2 (16 July 2021): President Biden and Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to disagree on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project of Gazprom during Merkel's visit to Washington. Per a Reuters report, President Biden said, "Good friends can disagree," with regard to the pipeline, which the United States opposes with the argument that Russia could use it to penalize Ukraine. Germany, however, needs a lot more natural gas as it shuts down coal and nuclear plants in its own green push and has staunchly defended Nord Stream 2. This has strained bilateral relations because, in addition to geopolitical concerns, the U.S. also produces a lot of liquefied natural gas that it needs to export, and Germany is one logical destination. The Biden administration has been criticized for mellowing out on Nord Stream 2 after the State Department waived sanctions on German entities involved in the pipeline project in a sign of goodwill. There was really no other way things could have ended during that visit. The interests of Germany and the United States totally diverge here. The U.S. wants to export its LNG, and Germany is willing to buy some of that, as long as the price is right, as a German minister said a couple of years ago when the Trump administration was pushing for more U.S. LNG imports and the cancellation of Nord Stream 2. (Source: Oil Price)

Biden Has Kickstarted A Consolidation Wave In The U.S. Shale Patch (15 July 2021): Consolidation is a troubled industry's best friend—and last year's crisis in oil and gas brought about by the pandemic was no exception. Mergers and acquisitions started later than they normally do in an industry downturn, but we saw some sizeable deals nevertheless. Now, the M&A trend is set to continue, according to the latest reports. First, energy data analytics firm Enverus this week released its regular M&A report for the first half of the year, saying that despite a slow start to the year, dealmaking gathered pace in the second quarter. The total value of deals closed during that quarter hit $33 billion, Enverus said, adding that this was distributed across 40 deals, of which seven were worth more than $1 billion. To compare, in the first quarter of the year, upstream deals totaled $3.4 billion, according to an earlier report by Enverus. The value of the deals in the first quarter compared with $600 million for the first quarter of 2020 but was significantly less than the $27.8 billion in deals recorded for the fourth quarter of 2020. (Source: Oil Price)

China's New Carbon Market Doubles Share Of World Emission Trading (14 July 2021): China, the world's largest polluter, is set to launch its nationwide emissions-trading system on Friday, sources with knowledge of the plans told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. China's entry into the carbon market would double the share of greenhouse gas emissions being traded under such schemes around the world, the Journal notes. The step toward creating a national emissions-trading system is part of the Chinese pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2060, a decade later than the deadline for most developed economies, 2050. The national carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) is expected to initially include emission trading among 2,225 firms in the power-generation sector, one of the large polluters in China. Companies will be given a specific allowance of carbon emissions that they will be allowed to emit every year. The companies will then buy or sell allowances, which is ultimately expected to incentivize them to reduce emissions. It is not clear yet how much the allowances will trade for on the carbon emissions market, according to the Journal. The Chinese carbon trade market will be the world's largest when it launches, the authorities say. (Source: Oil Price)

The World’s First Small Nuclear Reactor Is Now Under Construction (13 July 2021): China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) launched on Tuesday the construction of the first onshore small nuclear reactor in the world, in its efforts to gain a leading position in the modular reactors market. Construction began on the demonstration project at the Changjiang Nuclear Power Plant in the Hainan province in southern China, local publication Global Times reports. The start of the construction for the ‘Linglong One’ small nuclear reactor comes four years later than initially planned, due to delays in regulatory clearances, Reuters notes. The small reactor was originally planned to see the start of the construction phase in 2017. A year earlier, the Linglong One small reactor had become the first to pass a safety review from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Once completed and commissioned, the small nuclear reactor is expected to meet the annual power needs of around 526,000 households, Global Times reports, without giving a timeline for the completion. CNNC has been developing small reactor technology for the past ten years, the outlet says. (Source: Oil Price)

South Korea signs 20-year LNG deal with Qatar (12 July 2021): South Korea's energy ministry signed a 20-year LNG supply agreement with Qatar for the next 20 years starting in 2025. South Korea's state-run Korea Gas Corp will buy 2 million tonnes of LNG annually from Qatar Petroleum. "This long-term contract is considered to have favourable contract conditions, which would help stabilise LNG supply as well as to significantly drop fees," the ministry said in a statement. It did not provide financial details of the agreement. The energy ministry added that KOGAS buys 9 million tonnes of LNG annually from Qatar through long-term contracts and a contract worth 4.9 million tonnes of LNG is expected to end in 2024. (Source: Gas Processing)

U.S. Shale Can’t Afford To Gamble On The OPEC+ Outcome (10 July 2021): Following a deadlock in OPEC+ negotiations at the July 2021 meeting, oil prices briefly rose above $75 per barrel at the prospect of the alliance keeping output stable from August onwards, with producers in theory honoring their commitment to the original deal until a new way forward is agreed. As global oil demand is set to grow significantly, such a development would lead to a production deficit and Rystad Energy examined whether or not US shale can rise to the occasion and fill the imminent supply gap. During the busy summer season global demand for oil typically rises, and as countries loosen lockdowns and reopen, the demand push also increases the “call on OPEC+”, or the number of barrels the oil market would require from OPEC+ producers to be at a theoretical perfect equilibrium, meaning inventories neither draw nor build. For August, Rystad Energy forecasts that the global market needs an extra 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) of supply to be at this theoretical equilibrium. (Source: Oil Price)

UK Households To Foot The Bill For New Nuclear Plants (10 July 2021): Households will reportedly soon see their energy bills hiked in order to pay for the construction of new nuclear power plants in the UK. Ministers are in the process of drawing up legislation that will allow the construction of the new £20bn Sizewell C plant in Suffolk through the use of a Regulated Asset Base (RAB) financing scheme, FT reported. At its core, the RAB model, which is already used in the UK for large infrastructure projects like Thames Tideway, would allow builders to bill the eventual users of the plant’s energy during the construction phase. By using such a surcharge, which would be set at an agreed level, the project would find it easier to attract more investors to the project, the logic goes. The government launched a consultation of the funding method back in 2019. Today, the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said that it was still evaluating the RAB model. The proposed new plant at Sizewell will have 3.2 gigawatts of electricity generation capacity, enough to power more than 6m households for six decades. The report comes amid growing concerns over the future of the UK’s nuclear fleet, with all but one of the existing reactors set to be decommissioning come 2030. Thus far, just new one plant, Hinkley Point C in Somerset, is under construction, leading MPs to demand that the government commit to 10 gigawatts of new nuclear by 2030. (Source: Oil Price)

Canada’s Oil Sands Need $60 Billion To Achieve Net-Zero Emissions (9 July 2021): Canada will need as much as US$60 billion (C$75 billion) to make its oil sands operations net-zero emission businesses by 2050, top executives at the biggest oil firms told Bloomberg, adding that the government would need to step up and likely fund up to two-thirds of that cost. Carbon capture and storage is set to make up half of the reductions in emissions, but it may need government support for two-thirds of the cost to implement such projects, as Norway has been doing, Mark Little, president and chief executive officer of Suncor Energy, told Bloomberg in an interview. Alex Pourbaix, CEO of Cenovus Energy, also thinks that the industry cannot make all necessary investments on its own. “I don’t think any of us would ever be in a position to go at this on our own. It’s just too significant an undertaking,” Pourbaix told Bloomberg. Cenovus Energy and Suncor Energy became last month part of a net-zero collaboration initiative of the biggest oil sands producers in Canada aimed at achieving net-zero emissions from oil sands operations by 2050. The initiative includes companies that operate some 90 percent of Canada’s oil sands production—Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Imperial, MEG Energy, and Suncor Energy. (Source: Oil Price)

Oil Theft Runs Rampant In Africa’s Top Oil Producer (8 July 2021): OPEC member Nigeria is losing billions of U.S. dollars every year to oil theft and sabotage, which continue to plague the oil sector in Africa’s top crude producer and exporter.  Every day, Nigeria’s oil production could have been up to 200,000 barrels higher if it weren’t for the still endemic and widespread oil theft, according to government and industry estimates. Every year, Nigeria is missing out on billions of U.S. dollars of oil revenues because of crude oil losses, oil thieves rupturing pipelines and causing spills, and international oil majors declaring force majeure on loadings because they have to repair pipeline leaks resulting from theft or sabotage. Big Oil acknowledges that oil theft and sabotage continue to pose significant challenges to their operations in Nigeria, mostly in the oil-rich Niger Delta. At a time when upstream assets are competing to stay in the majors’ core-operations portfolios amid divestments to free up cash for low-carbon energy, the biggest producer in Africa is not in a good position compared to other oil regions. (Source: Oil Price)

The Plastics Sector Is Suffering As Oil Prices Rise (7 July 2021): Four years ago, the UN declared plastic pollution a global crisis, decades after the discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch--a collection of marine debris 2x the size of Texas. The Year 2020 was supposed to be a watershed moment for the industry after dozens of state and local policymakers planned to make the ultimate shift away from plastics. They clearly underestimated the sheer tenacity of the plucky industry, and a global pandemic. The plastics industry quickly seized the unexpected opportunity provided by the Covid-19 pandemic (which proved a double-edged sword) and an indulgent government to push back on the plastic bans, managing to post positive growth. The plastics and petrochemicals sector received a much-needed shot in the arm after the Trump administration gave it an ‘open license to pollute’ by relaxing tough environmental laws and fines for environmental pollution during the COVID-19 crisis amid historic lows in oil prices. That helped boost the industry big-time: After an initial dip in April 2020, plastics production quickly recovered and was growing in double-digits by the end of 2020. (Source: Oil Price)

Saudi Aramco Sees A Major Market Forming For Hydrogen (7 July 2021): There’s a lot of buzz going around about green hydrogen. It’s virtually emissions-free, it burns hot enough to replace combustible fossil fuels, and when it combusts it leaves behind nothing but water vapor -- a seeming silver bullet for the clean energy industry. Not only can it be used to replace things like coking coal, which wind and solar can’t replace because of the ultra-high temperatures needed, green hydrogen could also be a key component to scaling up other clean energies by providing a green method of storing energy that doesn’t require things like lithium-ion batteries, which in turn rely on finite rare Earth metals and minerals.  There are already plenty of industries that rely on burning hydrogen and have done so for years, but that doesn’t make them clean, because hydrogen is only as green as the energy that is used to make it. The vast majority of hydrogen users are burning gray hydrogen, which is produced using fossil fuels and which therefore has a worryingly large carbon footprint. Hydrogen made using the less emissions-intensive natural gas is sometimes distinguished from this grouping and referred to as blue hydrogen. And green hydrogen, the holy grail of hydrogens, is produced using clean and renewable energies. (Source: Oil Price)

U.S. Gas Suppliers Are Betting Big On Hydrogen (5 July 2021): This year will likely go down in history as the year when hydrogen won over the media. While it will still be a while before it becomes as mainstream as things like solar energy and battery storage, hydrogen has certainly been garnering a lot more attention recently. Now, even U.S. energy companies are beginning to experiment with it. Hydrogen, and more specifically green hydrogen, has been touted by the EU and the IEA, among others, as an indispensable part of the energy transition. Because hydrogen can be used as a fuel and as an energy carrier, it is a valuable addition to any energy transition plan. Unfortunately, the production of green hydrogen on any meaningful scale is currently prohibitively expensive. In the meantime, hydrogen is being used in a variety of different ways, including by the natural gas industry. Reuters reported earlier this month that several oil and gas pipeline operators are experimenting with blending hydrogen into natural gas to see how it will affect the infrastructure, as well as appliances and equipment. The companies doing the experimenting include Enbridge (0.74%)Sempra Energy (0.52%), and Dominion Energy (0.13%), the report said, with Enbridge trying a 2-percent hydrogen addition to gas and Dominion going for 5 percent. For context, the maximum hydrogen portion natural gas can take if it is to be used to produce electricity is 10 percent, according to GE, as cited by Reuters. (Source: Oil Price)

Saudi Arabia Aims To Dominate The Global Hydrogen Market (4 July 2021): While Saudi Arabia continues to develop its oil industry, it is not shying away from alternative energy options, with state-owned Aramco now heavily investing in hydrogen technology. Saudi Arabia still leads the world in oil production and exports but following an International Energy Agency (IEA) report earlier this year and recent investor pressure to adopt greener practices and embrace renewable alternatives the country is looking to develop its hydrogen industry. Aramco Chief Technology Officer Ahmad Al Khowaiter explained last week, “Today we’re showing that the technologies for the use of hydrogen are mature and commercially available… and we see this kind of as an inflection point in the market for hydrogen.” The announcement comes as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched a national strategy for transport and logistics with the objective of increasing the sector’s contribution to annual non-oil revenues to $12 billion by 2030. Most current hydrogen projects still rely on fossil fuels, which create brown or grey hydrogen. The end product may be clean, but the production process releases a significant quantity of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In contrast, hydrogen created this way but using carbon capture (CCS) technology creates a cleaner product known as ‘blue hydrogen’, which is the focus of Saudi Arabia’s efforts. (Source: Oil Price)

When Do EVs Become Cleaner Than Gas-Powered Cars? (3 July 2021): Most people don't know it, but EVs are not as clean as gasoline cars right off the bat. In fact, due to the impact of mining many materials used in EV batteries, it takes quite a bit of driving before you are doing less harm to the environment than gas cars. This was the topic of a new Reuters analysis piece by Paul Lienert, which sought to point out exactly how long you have to own and drive an EV in order to reach parity with a gas vehicle. The analysis was performed using "data from a model that calculates the lifetime emissions of vehicles" developed by the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago. The necessity for the analysis is obvious, because "...making EVs generates more carbon than combustion engine cars, mainly due to the extraction and processing of minerals in EV batteries and production of the power cells," said Jarod Cory Kelly, principal energy systems analyst at Argonne. The time it takes for how long EVs need to be driven to make up for that gap varies. It varies on factors "such as the size of the EV's battery, the fuel economy of a gasoline car and how the power used to charge an EV is generated," the analysis notes. In a Tesla Model 3, for example, the article points out you'd need to drive 13,500 miles before you're doing less harm to the environment than a gas-powered car. (Source: Oil Price)

U.S. Crude Oil Inventories Are Drawing Very Fast (2 Jul 2021): The U.S. oil market is tightening as commercial crude inventories are declining at a fast clip and driving wider time spreads in the WTI Crude futures curve. The curve is strengthening into backwardation, the state of the market signaling tighter supplies with the prices of the nearer futures contracts higher than those further out in time. The premium of the nearest contract to those for later delivery has been widening in recent days, suggesting that immediate supply is tightening. The spread between the cash WTI and the November contract, for example, was $3.40 early on Friday. This is the widest premium of prompt prices to the four-month futures price since 2018, according to Bloomberg estimates. The tighter prompt market reflects the continuous decline in U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, the relatively flat domestic crude oil production, and the relatively high U.S. oil exports despite the narrow WTI discount to Brent. U.S. commercial crude inventories fell by 6.7 million barrels for the week to June 25, as per Energy Information Administration data. This was the sixth consecutive weekly drawdown in crude stockpiles. (Source: Oil Price)

Imagining The City Of The Future (1 July 2021): Cities and municipalities can be the most effective policy executors. Being closer to their citizens and having more cohesive populations than nation-states helps them rally residents for challenging endeavors. Cities also adapt more easily to new digital tools, utilising data to monitor public sentiment and sharpen outreach efforts. These attributes allow cities and municipalities to act swiftly in normal times and in crises.
Climate change and the city: Cities address climate change individually and as part of a governance ecosystem. They work with national governments and international institutions to affect climate goals, but above all, cities strive for ensuring livability for their residents against climate impacts. One report on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals lauds smart cities—which use data to enhance public service provision—as key drivers for achieving net-zero emissions by maximising energy efficiency, streamlining public transport, and monitoring air quality.
Mobility: Cities may promote bicycle and scooter use by building segregated bike paths. They might also offer bike rentals, increase shuttles to transport hubs and initiate walkability programmes. Moreover, cities could electrify urban vehicle fleets by subsidizing car purchases through deals with car companies. (Source: Oil Price)