Brussels, 10/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Union is currently faced by a sizeable challenge - that of how best to design and adapt cities into smart, intelligent and sustainable environments, to create “smart cities”. Sixty-eight percent of Europeans live in urban areas and consume 70% of EU energy and, each year, congestion costs Europe about 1% of GDP. Bottlenecks and road accidents are on the rise, air quality is severely endangered and noise pollution is increasing. On Tuesday 10 July, the European Commission launched a Smart Cities and Communities European Innovation Partnership (SCC) with a view to boosting the development of smart technologies in cities, including through the pooling of research resources from energy, transport and ICT and concentrating them on a small number of demonstration projects which will be implemented in partnership with the towns and cities. Thanks to this partnership, deployment of tomorrow's urban systems and infrastructures may begin. For the year 2013 alone, €365 million have been allocated to demonstration projects for applied technological solutions in urban areas. The relevant commissioners in this field welcomed the initiative. Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said: “Innovation drives Europe's competitiveness and is the best means of addressing energy efficiency”. Siim Kallas, Transport Commissioner, asserted: “We need to drive forward the research and innovation that can bring us to our goals of CO2 free cities, phasing out conventionally fuelled cars from city centres, to smart charging of electric vehicles and smokeless silent buses”. Commissioner Neelie Kroes, responsible for the Digital Agenda, said: “ICTs put the 'smart' in 'smart cities'. It challenges legacy industries to rethink how to reduce congestion and increase energy efficiency in the urban environment; enabling new business models and empowering people”.
The management of towns and cities is a huge challenge. The most important issue that Europe must deal with is that of adapting the urban landscape in a way that is environmentally-friendly and harmonious, at a time when towns are sprawling and the urban population is growing. Today: 1) towns create some 80% of the EU's GDP, making up a country's life force and fostering economic growth; 2) two-thirds of European population currently live in urban areas, a proportion that is on the rise and is expected to reach 85% by 2050; 3) urban areas consume 70% of energy, accounting for 75% of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions; 4) the information and communications technology (ICT) sector will require more and more electricity by 2020; and 5) urban transport is responsible for one quarter of all the emissions from road transport. At the present time, the potential of smart and innovating technologies is up against obstacles such as high technological risk, difficulties over uncertain returns on investment and regulatory difficulties. Furthermore, in these times of financial crisis, businesses and cities are also reluctant to scale up and rapidly deploy innovative technologies despite potential cost savings and longer-term emissions reductions. At present, there is a need for inter-sectoral convergence to promote projects relating to urban transport, energy and intelligent ICT, which will allow the setting in place of concrete, environmentally-friendly and energy efficient solutions, the Commission states. For example these include: high efficiency heating and cooling systems, smart meters, real time energy management and near zero-energy buildings.
The “Smart Cities and Communities” initiative began in 2011. For the first year (2012), it had a budget of €81 million, and covered only two sectors: transport and energy. Demonstration projects financed under the initiative were under one or the other of the above two sectors, rather than a combination of both. As of 2013, the budget will be substantially increased to €365 million, and the initiative will be extended to new technologies, in addition to electricity and transport. Also, each of the demonstration projects financed under the partnership will have to integrate all three aspects - energy, ICT and transport - as pooling resources also means creating synergies. In 2014, a high level group consisting of CEOs from R&D-intensive industries, city mayors, regulatory authorities and public financing institutions will be set up to support the successful implementation of this innovation partnership. On the basis of their proposals, the Commission will make calls for proposals and industry consortia will be able to apply, submitting their project ideas. (IL/transl.jl)