The Case for Reimagining the Financing of Urban Services
Baraud-Serfaty, Isabelle
The Case for Reimagining the Financing of Urban Services - 2025.
89
To progress French aims for ecological transition, the public authorities are acting both on the supply side (e.g., renewable energies) and also on the demand side—by encouraging citizens to temper their use of resources. This latter effort involves, among other things, behavioural and lifestyle changes: reducing waste, recycling, lowering the thermostat in winter, using less water etc. More abstemious behaviour of this kind is an indispensable tool for addressing climate change (by mitigation as much as by adaptation). But it has an impact—not much taken into account, as yet—on the economy of urban services, which is generally based on the assumption of a continuous growth of consumption (water, household waste, production of heat etc.) in phase with the development of the population and its needs as expressed hitherto.As we are reminded by the authors of this article, all of them prime movers behind a study on the impact of frugality on the financing of urban services, the economic models for those services have all been built on this assumption of continuous volume growth and the gains generated by economies of scale. But though the context has changed, the economic model has not yet adapted to that change. Given such a paradigm shift, there needs to be a rethinking of how urban services are financed. This article shows why, by looking at three emblematic areas of concern: water distribution, household refuse collection, and urban heating networks. The authors invite the operators of these services and local authorities to reimagine their overall design, for example by reducing the size of dedicated infrastructures, revising the division of costs between operation and investment, or rethinking the notion of continuity of service. The move towards frugality, which is essential and which we can expect to see consolidated and even intensified, has systemic consequences. We have to anticipate these and adapt to them. This article provides an excellent illustration of that fact.
The Case for Reimagining the Financing of Urban Services - 2025.
89
To progress French aims for ecological transition, the public authorities are acting both on the supply side (e.g., renewable energies) and also on the demand side—by encouraging citizens to temper their use of resources. This latter effort involves, among other things, behavioural and lifestyle changes: reducing waste, recycling, lowering the thermostat in winter, using less water etc. More abstemious behaviour of this kind is an indispensable tool for addressing climate change (by mitigation as much as by adaptation). But it has an impact—not much taken into account, as yet—on the economy of urban services, which is generally based on the assumption of a continuous growth of consumption (water, household waste, production of heat etc.) in phase with the development of the population and its needs as expressed hitherto.As we are reminded by the authors of this article, all of them prime movers behind a study on the impact of frugality on the financing of urban services, the economic models for those services have all been built on this assumption of continuous volume growth and the gains generated by economies of scale. But though the context has changed, the economic model has not yet adapted to that change. Given such a paradigm shift, there needs to be a rethinking of how urban services are financed. This article shows why, by looking at three emblematic areas of concern: water distribution, household refuse collection, and urban heating networks. The authors invite the operators of these services and local authorities to reimagine their overall design, for example by reducing the size of dedicated infrastructures, revising the division of costs between operation and investment, or rethinking the notion of continuity of service. The move towards frugality, which is essential and which we can expect to see consolidated and even intensified, has systemic consequences. We have to anticipate these and adapt to them. This article provides an excellent illustration of that fact.
Réseaux sociaux