District Heating and Cooling: sustainable technologies for today and tomorrowEnergy is vital to the functioning of our societies. We need solutions that make it possible to combinesound economic growth with minimal environmental impact and maximum customer convenience.District heating and cooling are key to sustainability.District heating and cooling infrastructures enable huge carbon footprint reductions by creating thescale to allow cities to harvest the potential renewable energies and surplus heat that otherwisewould be wasted, and thereby substituting cleaner, lower-carbon resources for fossil fuels.Meeting for the first global District Energy summit on 3 November 2009 in Copenhagen, districtheating and cooling operators, investors and users call upon all parties involved in the negotiationsof a new climate deal at the 15

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Conference of the Parties to take good note of a technology that isproven and reliable), convenient to use, and highly cost effective in combating climate change.Not least the applicants for and winners of the first “District Energy Climate Award” from all partsof the world demonstrate the performance of district heating and cooling in mitigating climatechange, exploiting synergies across different parts of the energy landscape and enhancing eco-efficiency through integration.IEA studies as well as many other international and national studies show clearly: Heat demandsdominate the end-use of energy. At the same time, large amounts of heat are being lost in energytransformation processes. These losses could be considered a resource and "recycled" provided thenecessary infrastructures are put in place. To trigger the necessary investments in more districtheating and cooling infrastructures, focused, consistent attention from local and nationalgovernments is indispensable.Therefore, representative organizations of the district energy sector decided to join forces in leadingthe way to Copenhagen. The following set of recommendations is intended to guide decision-makersgathering at the COP-15 in their search for pragmatic and easy-to-implement solutions that combineeconomic and ecological benefits.

We, the representative organizations of district heating and cooling in more than 40countries across the World, met in Copenhagen on 3 November 2009.We call upon the Conference of the Parties:1. To pay more attention to heating and cooling markets, as well as to consistently monitor andexplicitly address these by international agreements, cooperation mechanisms and nationallegislation.Heating and cooling markets offer tremendous near term opportunities to reduce the use ofscarce and polluting fossil fuels. The unique opportunities for enhanced thermal energy marketsneed to be taken into account and addressed by specific policies for thermal energy. Togetherwith the development of renewable energy, waste heat has to be seen as one of the greatestpotential sources of sustainable energy to urgently reduce carbon emissions and cover futurethermal energy demands.As of today, international and national statistics do not provide a complete picture of heating andcooling markets. Yet, policy-making must be based on solid facts and figures. The IEA andnational governments must ensure continuous and complete monitoring.2. To prioritise action in urban areas and foster the integration of urban functions (wasteincineration, industrial production, transport, services, household demands etc.) by promotingsystematic heating and cooling infrastructure planning.Given the growing density of populations, rising energy demand and distinct pollution challenges,measures targeting urban areas can be expected to have the biggest impact in terms of climateprotection. District heating and cooling grids allow a systematically build up coverage ofcommercial, residential and service sector demands by low- and no-carbon technologies. Greaterintegration of energy conversion and electricity generation facilities with heat supplyinfrastructure would offer huge opportunities to save primary energy and cut emissionsTailor-made infrastructure solutions are required to connect thermal demands to locallyavailable surplus heat and renewable resources. To maximize local economic benefits, it isessential that public authorities get actively engaged in cost/benefit analysis and subsequentplanning3. To acknowledge district heating and cooling as important tool for climate change mitigation andthe importance of financing new heating and cooling networks as well as the upgrading of existingnetworks where appropriate.District heating and cooling systems are highly profitable from a national economy perspective.However, they are long term commitments while liberalised energy markets prioritise short termcommitments with shorter payback periods. Moreover, emission trading mechanisms focus onenergy production only and hence do not necessarily provide sufficient incentives to trigger

heating infrastructure investments. Especially in markets where district heating and cooling havea low market share, the contribution and coordination with public bodies in securing financing isessential. Emissions trading, energy policies and regulations must properly consider thermalenergy as a resource and not simply focus on electricity.In many transition countries, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, the high market shares ofdistrict heating provide an excellent starting point for bringing higher efficiency and morerenewables to the heating and cooling markets. Investing in system improvements, marketstabilisation and customer satisfaction is paramount.With the available amounts of waste heat, there is no shortage of heat for space heating, warmwater preparation and low temperature industrial purposes. The problem of the heat market isneither a problem of technology, energy availability nor carbon content, but organization andinvestment.4. To promote the integration of supply side and demand side policies, by focusing on systemefficiency in terms of primary energy rather than on final energy use.The distinction between demand and supply sides does not reflect the reality of the complexenergy system anymore. Focus on a single energy source or technology will result in sub-optimaland inefficient use of resources. The concept of a more holistic system (primary resource)efficiency combines energy efficiency with the use of renewables from the perspective ofreduced fossil fuel use. It reconciles the three objectives of energy and climate policy: security ofsupply, climate protection and competitiveness and therefore should be consistently used tomeasure the impact of policy measures.5. To reinforce international research programmes to provide a long-term framework forbenchmarking and transfer of best knowledge / legislative practice in district heating and cooling.To ensure that research efforts benefit a larger number of stakeholders and to foster continuedsystem adaptation with a view to enabling more and better integration of surplus and renewableenergies, reinforcing national and international research programmes to provide improvedfinancial and material basis for joint research activities on district heating and cooling isindispensable.The new green energy deal must encourage the transfer of experiences with district heating andcooling, and this should be reflected in international cooperation agreements.