Diana Ürge-Vorsatz

Recent energy supply disruptions have prompted some governments to deploy demand-side measures as emergency responses. These crises reveal that systems built on high and inflexible energy and material demand are structurally exposed to shocks. This vulnerability is rooted in earlier political, infrastructural, and economic choices that locked societies into resource-intensive mobility, housing, and production. Crises are not only moments requiring rapid response; they are junctures where structural weaknesses become available for reform. We argue that demand-side measures are essential for reducing the immediate pain of crises and for reconfiguring provisioning systems toward lasting resilience. Drawing on examples spanning oil, electricity, buildings, and transport across multiple geographies, we document a consistent pattern: demand adjusts under crisis pressure, but only structural embedding produces lasting gains in energy security, affordability, health, and wellbeing. Japan’s post-Fukushima Setsuden campaign achieved approximately 15% electricity savings sustained over several years; India’s UJALA programme replaced 360 million lightbulbs nationwide. Persistence depended on structural policy follow-through, not crisis urgency alone. Without institutionalizing demand-side approaches in crisis preparedness frameworks, each successive shock will be met with the same supply-side reflexes, missing the opportunity for the structural change that would make societies genuinely less vulnerable to the next one.

Rising urban temperatures and heat extremes pose an urgent global challenge, yet the potential for mitigating excessive urban heat-particularly at the global scale-remains unclear. Here, we quantify the cooling potential across 2,265 cities worldwide by the 2050s using validated urban climate simulations. Cooling effects are quantified as the reduction in the summer average wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and heat danger hours (HDH; WBGT > 31.4 °C) under the combined implementation of reflective surfaces, green transformation, and anthropogenic heat reduction. We show a distinct spatial asymmetry: while the cooling potential increases with latitude, primarily due to greater cooling from reflective surfaces, the highest heat risk is concentrated in low- to mid-latitude regions (10°N-40°N). In these high-risk regions, combined mitigation is more effective at night, reducing HDH by an average of 37%, whereas daytime heat is mitigated to a lesser extent (11%). These asymmetries underscore the need for context-specific strategies-particularly accelerated action and localized innovation for low-latitude humid regions-as well as the integration of city-scale planning with targeted daytime heat risk interventions.

Low energy demand (LED) strategies in buildings are increasingly recognised as key for climate mitigation, yet their broader well-being impacts remain poorly quantified and underrepresented in energy scenarios. Here we assess the health, energy security and employment co-benefits of residential LED pathways through 2050, in the UK and India, two countries with very different socio-economic contexts. We combine the MESSAGEix-Buildings model with air pollution and employment impact assessments to compare a LED pathway with a reference scenario. We show that show that demand side strategies can simultaneously advance climate mitigation, public health, energy security and employment: LED strategies reduce residential energy demand by 53% in both countries while delivering well-being gains beyond energy savings. In the UK, LED measures generate strong employment growth (+ 36%) and health improvements, reducing premature mortality by 12%. In India, the largest benefits arise from reduced energy import dependence (-16%) and job creation (+ 16%).

Ensuring equitable access to energy services to enhance human wellbeing is gaining prominence within climate negotiations. Despite rising energy demands in the Global South, disparities persist in access to decent living standards (DLS). Achieving DLS universally requires additional energy, yet the efficacy of demand-side strategies in meeting climate goals remains underexplored. Here, we assess energy and carbon dioxide emission implications of providing DLS to all within climate change mitigation efforts, focusing on India’s residential sector and using a multi-model analysis. Our findings show that providing DLS while leveraging demand-side measures, supported by enabling policies and widely available technologies, can substantially reduce residential energy demand by up to 27% by 2050 compared to a reference scenario. We find that enhanced access to DLS combined with demand-side measures not only improves wellbeing but also provides flexibility on the supply side while remaining compatible with ambitious climate targets.

Urban planners and other stakeholders often view trees as the ultimate panacea for mitigating urban heat stress; however, their cooling efficacy varies globally and is influenced by three primary factors: tree traits, urban morphology, and climate conditions. This study analyzes 182 studies on the cooling effects of urban trees across 17 climates in 110 global cities or regions. Tree implementation reduces peak monthly temperatures to below 26 °C in 83% of the cities. Trees can lower pedestrian-level temperatures by up to 12 °C through large radiation blockage and transpiration. In tropical, temperate, and continental climates, a mixed-use of deciduous and evergreen trees in open urban morphology provides approximately 0.5 °C more cooling than a single species approach. In arid climates, evergreen species predominate and demonstrate more effective cooling within compact urban morphology. Our study offers context-specific greening guidelines for urban planners to harness tree cooling in the face of global warming.

Rising demand for space cooling has been placing enormous strain on various technological, environmental, and societal dimensions, resulting in issues related to energy consumption, environmental sustainability, health and well-being, affordability, and equity. Holistic approaches that combine energy efficiency optimization, policy-making, and societal adaptation must be rapidly promoted as viable and timely solutions. We interpret the 30 year climatic-induced upward trend and spikes in urban space cooling demand from the perspective of climate change, urbanization, and background climates, through the lens of five major populated cities: Hong Kong, Sydney, Montreal, Zurich, and London. An unequivocal, worrying upward trend in cooling demand is observed in meteorological data, using cooling degree hours (CDHs) as a city-scale climatic-induced metric. The surge in cooling energy demand can be largely attributed to climate warming and urban heat islands, with the most abrupt spikes associated with intensified extreme heat events. Further, our quantification of the impact of the base temperature, in relation to the historical CDH, reveals that a 20% energy saving could be achieved instantly within a rather broad range of air temperature and relative humidity by increasing the setpoint temperature by one degree. With the rise in background temperatures due to climate change, the potential for energy saving diminishes for the same level of increase in setpoint temperature. For instance, an increase from 26 °C to 27 °C results in about 10% energy savings, while an increase from 22 °C to 23 °C could yield over 20% in energy savings. To reduce cooling energy demand rapidly in a warming climate, we highlight the necessity of promoting hard and soft behavioral adaptation along with regulatory intervention for the operation of space cooling systems.