Sustainable Urban Energy Policy: Heat and the city (Routledge Studies in Energy Policy)

'Debates about the future of energy systems often focus on electricity, and pay insufficient attention to the energy we use as heat in homes and businesses. This book is an exception. It is a valuable resource for anyone wishing to understand the organisational, economic and policy challenges of implementing more sustainable heat infrastructures in cities.' - Jim Watson, Director, UK Energy Research Centre

'Two essential yet under-recognised truths about climate and energy leap out from this thoughtful and timely book. First, that there can be no sustainable energy system without a fundamental shift in the way we heat and cool our buildings and second, that despite its global implications, the battle for climate change will be fought not in the hallowed halls of the United Nations but house by house and street by street in cities around the world.' - Paul Voss, Managing Director, EuroHeat and Power, Brussels

'An original, well-researched and authoritative analysis, characteristic of the authors, and a crucial read for anyone seeking to understand the current provision of heat in the UK. With an unprecedented transformation of the UK energy system occurring, this book provides insights based on practical international experience of the history, cultural differences, political processes and power relations that will drive those changes.' - Mike Colechin, UK Energy Technologies Institute

'Conceptually rich and empirically engaging, Sustainable Urban Energy Policy opens up the largely taken for granted provision of heat in the city to critical inquiry and provides new insights into the politically and socially contested nature of low carbon transitions. Essential reading for researchers and policy makers alike.' - Harriet Bulkeley, University of Durham, UK

Sustainable Urban Energy Policy provides an excellent critical and comparative analysis of the obduracy of existing heating systems and the remarkable difficulties of transforming these into sustainable heat networks. Although the technologies of sustainable heating are well understood, this book powerfully demonstrates that social and political issues explain why the alternatives are not implemented at scale in the city. If you want to properly understand why more effective intervention is crucial to realise the wider societal and environmental potential of metropolitan wide heat networks then read this book. - Simon Marvin, Director of the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield, UK