• Martin Horn, Lord Mayor of the City of Freiburg
• Wolfgang Teubner, ICLEI Regional Director for Europe

While renewable energy has been a major topic on the global environmental agenda for decades, circular economy, although in principle not new, is an emerging concept that aims at keeping products and materials at their maximum utility for as long as possible. This not only means reducing input of virgin materials and decreasing associated environmental pressures, but also maintaining if not broadening nature-based services. Local energy use and circular economy are intertwined in the sense that the energy use of materials will sustain the highly complex and increased up- and recycling processes. This session discusses the importance of decarbonisation of the energy system through local renewables for the circular economy.

Visit to the sustainable urban development area Erlenmatt

One of the last construction land reserves in the densely populated area of Basel, a former freight yard is being turned into a sustainable and energy-efficient community. Since 1998 the 19 ha area has been turned into the neighborhood “Erlenmatt”, including 1400 apartments, offices and business areas, over 5ha of green spaces as well as a school and kindergarten. The entire area is connected to 100% carbon-neutral long-distance heating and warm water, mostly generated through a waste-to-energy incineration plant as well as a wood power plant.

In an urban context, moving towards a circular economy entails challenges and opportunities for sectors such as mobility, housing, nutrition, digital infrastructure, but also more generally, for technology development, urban land use management, environmental justice and social cohesion. Integrating different sectors with high energy consumption carries a lot of advantages. For instance, excess electricity production from wind turbines or solar panels can be used to produce H2 fuel cells powering mobility in cities. 

This plenary discusses, how in order to fully capitalize on these developments, providers and consumers need to be spatially integrated to form synergies rather than being organized based on municipal jurisdictions. Also, the support of international standards for sector integration and innovation in circularity oriented product and service specification will be discussed.

A1. Local and regional level cooperation: adding value to the energy transition

The challenges posed by climate change and urbanisation cut across sectors and levels of government: from transnational to regional and local. To ensure a sustainable, clean and fair energy transition, cities and regions must work together to develop effective strategies within the scope of circular economy. This session introduces transferable best practices and scalable approaches on how cities and regions can together develop policies and actions to address the shift towards more sustainable energy systems and foster a better quality of life for their communities. 

• How can cities and regions work together to manage energy transition and boost local sustainable development?
• What are the roles and competences of different players at the local, regional, national and EU level? How can engagement of communities be ensured?
• What obstacles exist (e.g. legislative and financial) to support the energy transition?

B1. CapaCITIES: A pathway towards low carbon & circular economy 

The session will focus on low carbon and renewable energy initiatives being undertaken in Indian and European cities. The cities will present initiatives aiming to address increasing energy demands on one hand and the need to make energy clean and sustainable on the other, helping to create energy secure cities as well as low carbon pathways. The Indian city cases discussed are part of the CapaCITIES Program supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and range from the use of solar photovoltaic systems for common utilities to charging stations for e-rickshaws to waste management. The session will also feature a presentation by South Pole Group on the design of bankable projects and accessing financial mechanisms to implement them.

A2. THERMOS Inspire: Circular Heating and Cooling

Heating and cooling in buildings and industry currently accounts for half of the energy consumption in Europe with significant impact on national and local GHG emission rates and public and private budgets. As planners and providers of infrastructure and services, local governments should increasingly implement strategic projects that enable the move to a circular energy generation and consumption model. 

The session will focus on key challenges and opportunities local authorities are facing when putting circular energy initiatives to drive low carbon district heating and cooling networks. It will discuss concrete examples from the cities of Granollers (ES), Islington (UK) and Torino (IT) of how waste heat can be included in district energy systems. Participants will be introduced to the THERMOS open-source thermal energy planning software as a practical tool to facilitate the implementation of circular energy supply. 

B2. The waste water utility of the future: A key player of the circular city?

An event of INCOVER (Innovative Eco-Technologies for Resource Recovery from Wastewater). 

In this session researchers from the INCOVER project will present their work on innovative technologies for recovering a variety of resources from wastewater. These are, amongst others: recycled water, organic acids, bio-fertilisers, and bio-methane. A panel of municipal representatives and other experts from the public waste water sector will then be asked to provide their opinion on the feasibility of the presented technologies and the application of the products within a circular city context.

Option 1. Green Industry Park: Climate protection and energy efficiency in Freiburg’s largest industrial area

As part of the “Green Industry Park Freiburg” initiative – GIP for short – Freiburg’s oldest and largest industrial area (with 300 ha of space, 500 businesses, and roughly 12,000 employees) is set to be developed into an advanced, sustainable, energy- and resource-efficient industrial space to serve as a model for the entire country.

Option 2. Former Landfill Eichelbuck: From waste mountain to energy mountain

The City of Freiburg and the administrative district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald have delivered about 6,5mil tons of non-recyclable waste to the Eichelbuck landfill. In 2005 the site got closed due to new laws and Freiburg's waste has been burned in the "TREA Breisgau" ever since. The Eichelbuck landfill has since been in a "re-cultivation" phase to be concluded in 2020.

Option 3. THERMOS study visit to ‘Gutleutmatten’

Participants are invited to join THERMOS partners for a site visit to one of Freiburg’s most important urban development projects: ‘Gutleutmatten’. The planned quarter is to provide homes and infrastructure, including heating and cooling, for 1200-1300 citizens including kindergartens and other community institutions on inner Freiburg’s largest remaining free development area.

Besides the use of new, more participatory tools such as crowd financing and energy performance contracting with multiple shareholders, an equally important question is how to use established European and national financing instruments to create local and regional circular economy loops. This plenary discusses challenges and opportunities of societal and urban transformation and related financing models.

Cities and other sub-national governments are key in executing nationally set targets and contributing to internationally determined goals. They are closest to the management of decentralised energy production and the promotion of a supporting investment climate. Cities are well-placed to connect their circular economy strategies with their commitment to ambitious climate action. This plenary discusses how cities can avoid trade-offs between their circular economy and locally determined contributions or even raise their ambition bars in energy and GHG savings through ambitious and well-designed circular economy projects.