Energy Transition and the Urban Context

Dear Colleagues,

Urbanized areas will host approximately 70% of the world population by 2050 and account, directly and indirectly, for most of the anthropic greenhouse gas emissions. Rethinking our cities is, therefore, a fundamental step towards achieving a form of sustainable human development within the planetary boundaries. From the energy perspective, a Copernican revolution is required, shifting from the fossil fuel era, when energy has been considered a commodity, to the most effective, conscious, and appropriate management of energy in our cities. That entails the pervasive adoption of renewable energy generation, the recovery of waste energy wherever possible, and a holistic approach to energy efficiency at the building, neighbourhood and city scales. Any development must also take into account the complexity of cities in terms of governance, citizens’ behaviour and agency, and techno-socio-economic constraints in multiple crisis times. This Special Issue addresses this most needed transformation in a cross-disciplinary dialogue.

Submissions should be original articles or reviews. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• urban planning towards energy efficiency;
• building design and architecture for energy efficiency;
• use of renewable energy sources in the built environment;
• positive-energy and carbon-neutral buildings and neighbourhood;
• sustainable heating and cooling;
• smart energy systems;
• local energy communities and innovative business models;
• zero-emission urban mobility;
• behavioural and social science in energy transitions.

Dr. Fabio Maria Montagnino
Prof. Dr. Salvatore Carlucci
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• behavioural change
• climate-neutral and smart cities
• energy communities
• energy transition
• ethics for energy transition
• urban environment
• zero-emission urban mobility