Governing the transition to natural gas in Mediteranean Metropolis: The case of Cairo, Istanbul and Sfax (Tunisia)

Abstract

International audienceConsiders the governance of natural gas networks in emerging cities. Adopts a geographical approach looking at interactions between natural gas infrastructure and urban space. Switch to natural gas linked to financial purpose (subsidy cuts) more than concern for climate change. Switch to natural gas shaped by policies governing other urban energy forms. Urban politics and issues of affordability impact the governance of natural gas transition. a b s t r a c t Recent scholarship on urban energy governance has focused on low carbon energy strategies seen as a response to climate change and energy pressure threats. But such approaches tend to overlook the situations of cities from the Global South and emerging countries concerned with strong energy demand growth. The development of urban natural gas networks is an understudied response to such a challenge. Focusing on three cities, Istanbul, Cairo and Sfax (Tunisia), the article analyses the factors and the governance of these energy transitions. It uses a geographical approach to such processes that highlight the mutual influence of the territory in its material and political dimensions and of the policy goals and tools in the implementation. The development of urban gas networks rests upon the proximity of gas deposits. It is determined by metropolitan strategies for economic development as well as by programs aiming to cut energy subsidies. Though urban gas networks have a strong potential for restructuring the physical and social landscapes in cities, the dominant commercial approach taken by energy utilities and morphological constraints in the urban fabric limit their universalization. Natural gas is part of a mix of energies at the urban level and often competes with other energy forms, specifically renewables (like solar water heaters). Lastly, the development of urban natural gas networks sparks heated politics in relation to unfulfilled energy demand and affordability

Introduction to the special issue – Urban energy governance: Local actions, capacities and politics

“…As Monstadt and Wolff (2015) summarize: "cities are critical for both enabling and constraining energy transitions". Political debate, friction and dissonance emerge over the strategic direction and degree of change, but also around particular policy choices and decisions (e.g., privatization) or around material sites and planning projects (Gabillet, 2015;Verdeil et al, 2015;Blanchet, 2015;Späth and Rohracher, 2015) which come to emblematize diverging points of view on future urban energy configurations. Some papers analyze, for example, how urban authorities use energy and energy-related strategies or policies to do things differently (or deviantly) to national regulatory frameworks or to bypass centralized control (Webb, 2015;Hannon and Bolton, 2015;Monstadt and Wolff, 2015).…”

“…are being differently interpreted, translated, and grounded in locally specific policy responses and practices in cities around the world. Urban energy policies may be conceived around more or less direct interventions in the energy sector (in production, distribution and demand management) as in the papers by Hannon and Bolton (2015), Mouton (2015) and Verdeil et al (2015). For example, Hannon and Bolton (2015) show that in the UK "a large number of LAs are making concerted efforts" to work with energy but for local reasons (fuel poverty, self-sufficiency) rather than "to address the UK's energy trilemma", emphasizing how energy issues are always translated into local matters and by local expertise.…”

“…The papers by Gabillet (2015), Hannon and Bolton (2015), Monstadt and Wolff (2015), Webb (2015) and Späth and Rohracher (2015) all delve into how decisions were made and the learning process in local municipal authorities and organizations. Verdeil et al (2015), Hannon and Bolton (2015) and Webb (2015) focus on the subsidies, finance and economic arrangements that also constitute an important resource in the construction of local capacity to act and effect change. This also demonstrates that energy issues have, in many cases, become a conduit through which authorities, political actors and energy companies seek to actually govern urban areas and populations more generally, shaping access to and affordability of energy flows in particular ways for particular purposes (compare, for example, Criqui and Zérah (2015), Mouton (2015), Blanchet (2015), Webb (2015)).…”

“…The paper argues that electricity has re-emerged as a local issue again, but that the utility is adopting a repressive stance towards informal connections in a context in which local government has little capacity to effect change. Verdeil et al (2015) focus on the distinctive processes underpinning the development of natural gas networks in three cities of the Middle East (Cairo, Istanbul and Sfax in Tunisia). The paper argues that these networks have become urban issues in the diverse ways in which their deployment and uptake is enabled and constrained by local socio-political contexts and dynamics.…”

Natural gas and climate finance

“…However, other models suggest that without policies that promote renewables and discourage the use of fossil fuels (including gas), abundant natural gas may actually delay the adoption of renewables (Shearer, Bistline et al 2014). This may be particularly noticeable in an urban context in which gas-based generation may displace other energy forms such as solar water heaters (Verdeil, Arik et al 2015).…”