The energy transition and cities of the future

Jurist Dr Sanne Akerboom and Professor of Urban Futures Maarten Hajer talked about the energy transition and future cities at NPO Radio 1, live from the Springtij festival at Terschelling.

Sanne Akerboom is researching the energy transition and citizen’s participation in this transition. People do want to participate in the energy transition towards wind farms, she says, but the processes to involve the citizens are not well executed. Stakeholder participation is often rare, but this can be worked on according to Akerboom. When a wind farm is built without involvement of the citizens, they might reject the idea.

Maarten Hajer discussed what future cities should look like. Concrete and cement must not be used for building future houses, he argues, because these materials are immense sources of CO2. A good and sustainable alternative to these materials is cross laminated timber. Hajer also says that future cities need to be free of natural gas, should contain lots of green to cool the city and places where people live and work should not lie too far apart.