如何解決城市能源供應難題?大綱

Cities hold about half of the world's population but account for 60 per cent of its energy use, according to the International Energy Agency, which is backed by developed country governments.
根據得到發達政府支持的國際能源署(IEA)數據，城市養育了全球約一半的人口，卻消耗了佔全球使用量60%的能源。

Many of the problems of urbanisation – local pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, provision of services and economic development – are linked to energy use.
城市化的很多問題——環境污染、溫室氣體排放、服務配套和經濟發展，都與能源消耗有關。

In emerging economies, cities typically consume more commercially provided energy than rural areas. City dwellers are more likely to have access to electricity, to own energy-hungry consumer goods, and to work in places that need to be powered.
在新興經濟體，城市對商業化供應的能源消耗量往往超過農村地區。城市居民更有可能獲得電力供應、擁有高耗能的消費品並在需要用電的場所工作。

Rural areas typically use much more biomass such as wood and animal dung for cooking and heating, so their total energy consumption is often higher. But the demand for coal, gas and power is greatest in cities. In China, cities use twice as much commercial energy per capita as the countryside.
在農村，利用柴火和動物糞便等生物質來生活做法和取暖的情況，往往會比城市裏普遍得多。因此，農村能源消耗總量通常更高。但在城市，人們對煤炭、天然氣和電力這幾種形式的能源需求量最大。在中國，城市人均商業化供應的能源消耗量是農村的兩倍。In developed economies, including the US and the EU, that pattern is reversed, and cities are typically the most energy-efficient places. In the US, people in rural areas use 12 per cent more energy per capita than city dwellers. Those in the suburbs use 20 per cent more.
在發達經濟體（包括美國和歐盟(EU)），情況恰恰相反——城市往往是能源消耗最少的地方。在美國，農村居民的人均能源消耗量比城市居民高出12%。郊區居民的人均能源消耗量比城市居民高出20%。

Cities that address the challenges of energy provision can improve the lives of their residents and their prospects for economic development, as well as show the world ways to respond to energy shortages.
解決城市能源供應難題，能夠提高城市居民生活質量，改善城市經濟發展的前景，同時在全世界面前爲應對能源短缺起到示範作用。

The entries for this category indicate that there is a demand for innovation that is economic and social, as well as technological. Often, the technology to make significant changes already exists, and the important part is finding ways for it to be deployed on a large enough scale to make a difference.
嘗試解決這一難題的一些例子顯示，有必要進行經濟、社會以及技術上的創新。可以創造重大變革的技術往往已經存在，重要的是找到方法，對技術進行足夠大規模的利用，以創造一些改變。

Proterra's electric bus is an example of a technological innovation. With a completely new body and systems, and an innovative lithium titanate battery, the EcoRide has been out in front of the rest of the US bus industry.
Proterra生產的電動公交車，就是一個技術創新的例子。該公司生產的EcoRide電動公交車，車身和車輛系統與傳統公交車截然不同，配備了突破傳統的鈦酸鋰電池，走在了美國公交車製造業的前沿。

Two other entries address the fact that poverty forces people to cook and heat their homes with coal, charcoal, wood and animal dung. Smoke and soot from those fuels are estimated to cause 2m deaths worldwide each year, mostly of women and children.
在另外兩個例子中，技術人員針對這樣一個事實想出瞭解決之道：由於貧困，人們不得不用煤、木炭、柴火和動物糞便，來生火做飯和取暖。據估計，燃燒這些物質所產生的煙霧和灰塵每年導致全球200萬人死亡，其中多數爲婦女和兒童。

The Community Cooker from Kenya is a stove that burns waste at very high temperatures, above 800 degrees Celsius, to minimise noxious waste gases and ash. Reaching those temperatures was difficult, but the stove has been designed so that it can be built, maintained and repaired in the slums where it is being used.
肯尼亞的“社區爐竈”(Community Cooker)是一種以極高的溫度（超過800攝氏度）燃燒廢物的爐子。高溫燃燒能最大限度地減少有毒氣體的排放和灰塵的產生。要達到這種高溫很難，不過這樣的爐子已經設計出來。貧民區居民可以搭建這樣的爐子並自行維護和修理。如今，肯尼亞許多貧民區居民已經用上了這種爐子。

The LPG project from India uses a very well-established technology, familiar from any backyard grill in the US, but with a new economic framework to increase access. One of the greatest obstacles to the use of liquefied petroleum gas by poor households in India is the upfront costs for a stove, a regulator, a gas cylinder and fuel. The LPG scheme takes regular contributions from members of a community and pools them to pay those costs for a few households every month. In the pilot project, all 60 households were connected over a period of five to six months.
印度的液化石油氣(LPG)項目利用了一種非常成熟的技術，這種技術常見於美國家庭的後院燒烤架活動中，但印度加上了一個新的經濟框架，以擴大該技術的適用範圍。阻止印度貧困家庭使用液化石油氣的最大障礙之一是前期投入——要購買氣化爐、調節器、氣瓶和燃料。液化石油氣項目得到了某社區居民的定期捐款，項目組織者將捐款集中起來，每個月解決幾家的前期投入。在試運行中，參與項目的總共60個家庭，在5至6個月的時間裏全都用上了液化天然氣。

Two influential cities, Tokyo and Houston, have taken very different approaches in their attempts to achieve greater energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
在努力提高能源使用效率和減少溫室氣體排放方面，兩個頗具影響力的城市——東京和休斯敦，採取了迥然不同的方法。

Japan's capital has introduced the world's first city-level cap-and-trade programme for carbon dioxide emissions, requiring commercial and industrial buildings to make energy efficiency modifications or buy emissions permits.
日本首都東京推出了世界第一個城市級碳排放“限額與交易”（cap-and-trade）計劃，要求各工商業大樓要不就進行能效改革，要不就購買碳排放額度。

The scheme, launched in 2010, is a culmination of Tokyo's effort to improve energy efficiency, which it began in 2002.
該計劃於2010年推出，代表日本政府自2002年起提高能源效率的努力達到一個高峯。

In Houston, by contrast, the energy efficiency programme is voluntary. The mayor's Green Office Challenge harnesses the competitive spirit of the city's businesses to drive down their energy use, with recognition and the possibility of some small cash grants its only rewards.
與東京不同，在休斯敦，能效計劃是自願參加的。休斯敦市長髮起的“綠色辦公室挑戰”(Green Office Challenge)項目，利用該市企業的好勝心，促使它們爭相減少能源使用。項目優勝者僅有的獎賞就是政府的認可，可能還有一點現金獎勵。

One of the many concerns about worldwide urbanisation is that it will mean homogenisation – that economic development will mean standardised cities. While that may prove true eventually, the lesson of these awards is how diverse the challenges, as well as the solutions, still are.
人們對在全世界興起的城市化有很多擔憂，其中之一就是，人們擔心這將導致城市同質化：經濟發展將帶來越來越多“標準化”城市。儘管事實可能最終會證明這是真的，但休斯頓的做法告訴我們：眼前種種困難之間的差異有多大，同時，解決辦法仍然是多麼的五花八門。