Urban electrification is a strong strategy to leapfrog toward efficient and low-carbon sustainable energy systems and facilitate broad, just changes in the urban environment. The approach aligns adaptation and mitigation with the Sustainable Development Goals, in part due to the tangible co-benefits of improved air quality and associated improvements in health. Urban electrification has a dual meaning. On the one hand it refers to gaining access to electricity in urban areas, particularly those urban areas that are growing rapidly. On the other hand, urban electrification refers to the increased use of electricity as an alternative fuel in urban areas, and the coupling of built environment designs with the development of clean electricity provision systems.

Cities at the forefront

Cities, including government, community, and private actors, are at the forefront of innovation. Cities can become hubs of accelerated and equitable energy transitions. Adaptation may increase energy demand, on account of the population density as well as accounting for informal settlements, environmental inequalities, and energy poverty. Urban electrification opens up opportunities to provide access to clean and affordable energy from renewable sources to adapt. Urban electrification initiatives will benefit over a billion people in the world who lack access to electricity, many of whom live in rapidly urbanizing areas or urbanized areas where access to electricity is highly uneven. In rural areas the potential for mini-grids to deliver income generation and poverty alleviation benefits is limited because electricity demand remains low but the energy poverty impacts of electrification in urban areas are not thoroughly understood.

Electrification as a new source of market growth

Currently, urban electrification is driven by urban buildings and on-road transportation, especially battery electric vehicles, heat pumps, and cookstoves. Utilities and investors see these changes as new sources of growth, as can be seen from the global trends in investment in electricity networks. Rates of decline in carbon intensity are forecast to be faster in cities and with municipally-owned utilities due to their renewable targets, unique regulatory structures, and prominent roles in regional, state, and national economies.

Urban electrification’s full potential lies in fundamentally rethinking electricity provisions from a systems perspective that recognizes the multifaceted value proposition of decentralized energy systems, disrupting powerful centralized high-carbon electricity systems. Urban electrification entails risks because there are significant inequalities of access to decision-making on investments and technologies. Unmitigated, it could deepen the divide between those who benefit and can afford low-carbon systems and those who do not, or who bear the negative impacts. An equity, justiceoriented approach that involves a diverse stakeholder base through the transition is essential to ensure fair innovation processes and that electrification projects do not have unintended negative impacts on vulnerable populations. Leveraging the benefit of urban electrification involves considering the constraints of governance, the built environment, how electricity-powered technologies interact with building design, urban, and mobility planning, and people’s use of urban space.

Bottom-up transitions

Many actions can help realize the potential of urban electrification. Communities, local officials, and utilities are introducing decentralized power systems such as distributed energy generation, micro-grids and smart grids. City officials are promoting the use of renewables in their government-owned facilities, integrating them into their building codes, and fostering renewables in the electricity, building, and transport sectors. Grassroots movements such as youth climate activists, community actors and transnational networks are in many cases driving transitions. Their efforts include working on urban planning, green transport, and grid integration, as well as challenging existing power relationships around current energy regimes and the actors and political authorities who maintain them. Addressing the demands of the built environment, institutional constraints, and the carbon intensity of energy sources with an equity approach to a systems transition will enable the benefits of urban electrification to be realized.