Abstract
The world rapidly urbanizing, and a majority of the global population will experience climate change in cities. Cities are being increasingly recognized as major contributors to climate change, consuming two thirds of global primary energy and generating about 71% of energy-related CO2 emissions which is expected to rise to 76% by 2030. The concerns of policy makers dealing with energy in cities focus not only on issues related to availability or its use, but more on its implication after use as it ultimately produces local air pollutants and greenhouse gases as waste which exerts serious local and global implications on human health due to their unacceptable concentrations. The link between the energy sector and climate change mitigation can be possible to study through understanding the main challenges of coming urban energy transitions include: 1) increased urbanization in developing countries, 2) changing infrastructure in developed countries, 3) climate change-energy security imperatives and 4) new technologies at local and grid levels. These challenges highlight the need for cities to reconsider how new urban investments should be prioritized in order to reduce resource consumption and emissions, as well as to achieve local and national development goals. A number of factors influence energy use in and the resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from cities. The major ones include the urban spatial structure,the nature of transportation systems, income and lifestyle, the energy efficiency of key technologies, industrial processes, building technologies, climate, and waste disposal methods. Implementation of mitigation measures in the energy sector can play an important role in increasing the sufficiency of resources to meet national energy demand at competitive and stable prices and improving the resilience of the energy supply system. Improvements in energy intensity due to positive technological change and switching to low carbon energy systems have played an important role in reducing energy use and associated GHG emissions.