City-Level Decoupling-Case Studies

However, by transforming green housing into a consumer product, it has become a luxury (and an aspiration for the higher classes), rather than serving as a model for the collective provision of services to broader sectors of the population in Bangalore. T-Zed is a model of self-sufficiency and isolation, in which higher earners do not see themselves as contributing to the development and improvement of the whole city. Some of the practical solutions applied in the development, such as the digging of a borehole to augment water supplies, encroach on common pool resources but give little back to adjacent communities. Overall, the model of urban development is not questioned, and the city continues to spread beyond its limits, placing additional strains on the city’s resources and generating conflicts, especially about transport, water resources and land. While BCIL managers claim that they would like to do many things differently if they were starting T-Zed again – most of these changes pertaining to technical and organizational issues – they also believe that the model of commercialization of green housing is a valid response to current trends in urban growth in Bangalore. They do not question the factors leading to these trends and thus do not offer alternative models of higher density, mixed-use, collective provision of services to allow sharing responsibilities for the sustainability of the city beyond their gated compounds.

3. Masdar, Abu Dhabi: a zero-carbon city in the Arabian desert 27

By Prof.Simon Marvin (Durham Energy Institute, Durham University) and Mike Hodson (The Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures, University of Salford)

Masdar (Arabic: ردصم ‎ , ma ṣ dar, literally ’source') is an ambitious eco-city project currently under construction 17 km south-east of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. At its core is a planned city constructed from scratch by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company with the majority of the start-up capital provided by the government of Abu Dhabi. Designed by Foster & Partners, it is intended that the city will be powered by solar energy and other renewable energy sources, with a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology. The initiative is being driven by the UAE’s poor ecological performance record, new economic pressures on the current oil and gas-based energy system, and a strategic aspiration to develop a transition to alternative and renewable forms of energy. Taken together, these drivers have led to the construction of an emblematic urban solution for the Middle East that is a key part of a wider energy transition that may have relevance in other contexts with energy-related challenges. The plan is that Masdar will gain early-mover status and support Abu Dhabi’s transition from technology ‘consumer' to technology ‘producer'. The UAE has one of the largest ecological footprints – and also the seventh highest oil reserves and sixth highest gas reserves - in the world. Reducing dependence on fossil fuels is a key element of Abu Dhabi’s energy and sustainability strategy. Despite vast reserves of fossil fuels leaders recognize that these are finite and, combined with a desire to reduce carbon emissions, a new strategy for developing renewable energy could provide an alternative environmental future.

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