Implementation Strategies

Policy Theme 1: Prepare a Comprehensive Long-term Plan for a Low-Carbon/Net-Zero city with integrated solutions

Strategy 1: Develop a Vision and Goals

Strategy 2: Establish an Energy Inventory or Baseline, Trends, and Challenges Strategy 3: Set a Target to Reduce Cumulative Energy and Emissions

Strategy 4: Launch Implementation Framework for putting the Plan into Action

Strategy 5: Performance Evaluation and Improvement Frameworks

Opportunities for practitioners to address various sectors of urban energy economy, infrastructure, and land use exist within several key elements of comprehensive energy plans. Each of the sectors, including buildings, transportation, industries, water supply, sanitation, and solid waste, are outlined in subsequent chapters, as they explicitly embody energy use and potential for production and others are linked to energy indirectly, like land use.

Some of the important aspects of a Comprehensive Energy Plan are City Planning, identifying and implementing technical solutions, drafting effective local policies, identifying ways to finance sustainable energy projects and capacity building, providing a communication platform for exchanging best practices and finally implementing demo projects that showcase best practices in clean energy technology.

Components within a comprehensive plan include below highlighted detailed segments.

Develop a Vision and Goals

Work with key urban decision-makers and other stakeholders to develop a cohesive vision for longer-term energy independence and environmental sustainability.

Establish an Energy Inventory or Baseline, Trends and Challenges

Work with various city departments to gather data on energy use by all sectors to establish a baseline for a particular year (e.g. 2020 or 2025). For example, land use, changing development patterns, economic conditions and their impacts on various sectors, transportation patterns, vehicle miles traveled, mass-transit use, building types and inventory, industrial activity, water supply, sanitation, and solid-waste management. Trends of change in these factors, including consumption patterns, aging infrastructure, technology change, increasing fuel diversity, and looming internal and external factors/threats affecting these changes (e.g. climate change, water).

Set a Target to Reduce Cumulative Energy and Emissions

Device long-, medium- and short-term quantifiable and achievable targets for the Net-Zero/Low-Carbon city development by reducing total energy by infusing energy efficiency, and especially fossil energy by deploying renewable energy. Similarly set targets for the reduction energy intensity and emissions to support provincial and national targets.

Launch Implementation Framework for putting the Plan into Action

This is the core document underpinning each Net-Zero/Low-Carbon city activity, as it defines the specific actions that will be taken by the City to deploy effective policies, strategies, and projects that are expected to yield successful and tangible outcomes. Institute a Low-Carbon/Net-Zero Energy Authority to implement the plan into action. Establish a Local Working Group involving various city agencies in support of this Authority.

Performance Evaluation and Improvement Frameworks

Plans, policies, and projects need to be continuously evaluated to assess performance being executed and delivered as designed, on time, and yielding expected outcomes. Performance measures can be used to evaluate the existing system, compare and select alternatives, and measure the progress of the plan throughout its implementation. In addition, performance measures can assist in prioritizing projects for programming in the implementation plan.

• Design a performance evaluation matrix for benchmarking operational efficiencies compared to the planned capacities.

• Establish management frameworks for the effective operation of urban infrastructure and services.

• Develop frameworks for continuous improvements in the plans based on the performance of actual systems.

• Include commissioning measurement and evaluation protocols.