New research suggests a way forward toward greener cities. The researchers suggest starting from the perspective of the 'ideal' city of the future and then backcasting to the present to work out how to get there. Doesn't sound like rocket science, but the study explored the City of Bristol in the UK. Bristol has set ambitious carbon reduction targets - 80% by 2050. Using questionning techniques, the researchers came up with 7 senaries, which different in their orientation toward aspects such as globalism vs localism. The technique allowed the researchers to identify stakeholders views, for example that business was largely positive toward a move to low carbon technologies, seeing it as an opportunity (though I suspect not all businesses would take this view).
You can read morea bout the study at:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integra ... alerts.htm