Download full text
(external source)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v8i1.6178
Exports for your reference manager
Urban Heat Transition in Berlin: Corporate Strategies, Political Conflicts, and Just Solutions
[journal article]
Abstract In the field of urban climate policy, heat production and demand are key sectors for achieving a sustainable city. Heat production has to shift from fossil to renewable energies, and the heat demand of most buildings has to be reduced significantly via building retrofits. However, analyses of heat t... view more
In the field of urban climate policy, heat production and demand are key sectors for achieving a sustainable city. Heat production has to shift from fossil to renewable energies, and the heat demand of most buildings has to be reduced significantly via building retrofits. However, analyses of heat transition still lack its contextualization within entangled urban politico-economic processes and materialities and require critical socio-theoretical examination. Asking about the embeddedness of heat transition within social relations and its implications for social justice issues, this article discusses the challenges and opportunities of heat transition, taking Berlin as an example. It uses an urban political ecology perspective to analyze the materialities of Berlin’s heating-housing nexus, its politico-economic context, implications for relations of inequality and power, and its contested strategies. The empirical analysis identifies major disputes about the future trajectory of heat production and about the distribution of retrofit costs. Using our conceptual approach, we discuss these empirical findings against the idea of a more just heat transition. For this purpose, we discuss three policy proposals regarding cost distribution, urban heat planning, and remunicipalization of heat utilities. We argue that this conceptual approach provides huge benefits for debates around heat transition and, more generally, energy justice and just transitions.... view less
Keywords
Federal Republic of Germany; energy supply; gentrification; environmental policy; energy production; renewable energy; social justice; social relations; energy policy
Classification
Area Development Planning, Regional Research
Special areas of Departmental Policy
Sociology of Settlements and Housing, Urban Sociology
Free Keywords
Berlin; energy justice; energy retrofitting; green gentrification; heat transition; just transition; low-carbon policy; urban metabolism; urban political ecology
Document language
English
Publication Year
2023
Page/Pages
p. 361-371
Journal
Urban Planning, 8 (2023) 1
Issue topic
Social Justice in the Green City
ISSN
2183-7635
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed