Malmö and the urban energy challenge - Some considerations with inspiration from political ecology

This paper elaborates on one of the big urban sustainability challenges: energy. A brief overview of the global context is given and then I turn to a case study of the contemporary energy system of the city of Malmö in Southern Sweden. In the light of the global energy challenge and with special attention to global warming, cities and regions are now making efforts to promote fossil-free, efficient and long-term sustainable energy solutions. The City of Malmö is in the process of adopting an ambitious energy goal aiming at a system completely run on renewable energy by 2030. Given that the contemporary energy system is to at least 2/3 dependent on non-renewable sources, I will highlight some of the main challenges to realize this long-term goal. The discussion in this paper will be inspired by the perspective of political ecology.