(+ 33.7 % since 2008, if calculated in local currency18.
In addition to the water price increases, most consumers also face higher prices for electricity, when they have access to this energy. It should be recalled, in this respect, that if 78 % of the population in the world have access to electricity19, 1.6 billion inhabitants have no access today to electricity (80 % of the rural population in Africa), and 2 billion people still do not have a sufficient energy to live in the dignity20. Yet, the global electric consumption has been multiplied by 3.2 in 38 years from 6129 TWh in 1973 to 20,915 TWh in 201221, and is expected to continue to do so in the coming years. According to the International Energy Agency, if the global energy demand is multiplied by 1.5 by 2050, the global electricity demand will double because of the population growth and the new needs of developing countries in terms of energy consumption and more especially of electricity22.
At the same time, the global population could suffer from an increase of carbon dioxide emission. Regarding this evolution, we should point out that, in the world, the carbon dioxide emission has increased from 22.7 billion tons in 1990 to 34.5 billion tons in 201223, and that this rise should continue in the future if nothing is done. It is also important to underline that 60 % of CO2 emissions in the world are related to the sector of the energy, among which 40 % come from the electricity sector and 20 % from the transportation sector24. If China is the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world with 9.86 tons out of 34.5 tons in 2012 (29 %), this problem is not only a matter of developing countries as the USA emitted 5.19 tons (15 %) and the European Union 3.74 tons (11 %) the same year25. Finally, it should be noted that the energy supply causes 26 % of carbon dioxide emission in the world. Transport is responsible for 13 % of this emission, residential and commercial buildings for 8 %, and waste and wastewater for 3 %26.
In all these sectors, smart green communities can play a role to reduce these emissions. In other words, for all the reasons mentioned above, we should improve the efficiency of green public policies. Smart communities can help reach this goal as they are nearly always linked to green policies. Indeed, most of the cities that intend to become smarter also develop green policies or try to improve the efficiency of their environmental public policies. For instance, Qui Aijun explains that in China, the construction of smart cities always integrates an ecological plan in order to fight against the traffic congestion, or to reduce the environmental pollution. In Nanton, like others Chinese cities, ICTs are used, “to optimize the infrastructure, maximize the use of natural resources and build a harmonious cultural environment with the goal of becoming a low-carbon Smart City”27. This feature is not only available in China, but is common to other smart communities in the rest of the world. So, developing smarter communities help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and favors, therefore, a better life.
B. Smarter Green Communities for Better Lives
Smarter green communities help improve our lives in at least two different ways. First, developing smart communities favors the effectiveness and efficiency of local green policies. The result is not only to clean up the air or the water; it is also to reduce the cost of public policies or individual invoices.
For instance, reducing energy demand by increasing the efficiency and conservation of electricity in homes, in businesses, in industries or in governmental buildings do not only favor the reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions, but is also to decrease the customer’s electricity bill or the public spending in the latest example.
Second, the aim is not only to reduce the cost of green public policies by improving their effectiveness and efficiency; the aim is also to favor directly better lives for their citizens. For instance, the smart street lighting does not only help reduce public expenditures for the taxpayers by cutting the energy cost and minimizing the maintenance cost. It also reinforces safety in the streets by illuminating the path while the pedestrian is moving. These three advantages have prompted the City of Oslo to be the first one in the world to launch a dynamic outdoor lighting system in April 2006. Thanks to 14,000 lamps out of 70,000 equipped with new light fixtures and sensors, the City of Oslo can regulate the amount of lighting needed by analyzing in real time the surrounding conditions. The illumination level provided by the City of Oslo depends on the time of day, seasons, weather conditions, or the density of the traffic, as cars also generate themselves lighting. Thanks to this dynamic lighting, the City of Oslo has saved between 40 and 70 % of electricity over the previous lamps and expect to improve again this efficiency by extending this technology to all the 70,000 street lamps in Oslo. According to the city, such an extension could help reduce yearly the electricity consumption of 20 GWh and the CO2 emission of 7,000 tons28. At the same time, streets are safer and more comfortable: thanks to a better visibility for drivers and pedestrians, enlightening streets helps improve traffic safety and to reduce crime29. So, the dynamic lighting makes Oslo citizens feel more secure.
Oslo’s dynamic street lighting is not the only example of the smart green project developed by communities to improve living conditions of their inhabitants. Most of them pursue the same aim, whether it is to develop smart grids in order to optimize the energy in Issy-les-Moulinneaux in France30, in Ashton Hayes Smart Village in United Kingdom31, in the City of Castellón in Spain32 or elsewhere in Europe and in the world33; whether it is to develop climate-neutral public transport like in Oslo34, or even to improve only the efficiency of public transport to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and save time for citizens; or whether it is to implement smart meters to detect water leaks to prevent flood and water damage in homes or reduce water consumption in the Miami-Dade County Park35.
In this regard, we should underline how substantial is the water loss from leaking pipelines in some cities (25 % in UK cities, and even nearly 50 % in London; 40 % in Montreal; 35 % in Seoul; 50 % in Vietnam cities36 or 25 % in Rome37).
Some cities try to combine several smart green projects, like Oslo which plans to become a zero-emission city by 2050. Similarly, Copenhagen intends to “become a Smart city that offers the world’s best urban environment and a unique urban life. To achieve this goal, [they] have planned four milestones: green and blue capital carbon-neutral, clean and healthy city, and the world’s best city for cyclists”38.
§ 2 – Smarter Green Communities in a Better Legal Framework
A. By Guaranteeing a Right to Information
The main areas of the smart green communities are energy, water, transportation, and waste. Smart green communities are, in all of these cases, those which enable efficiency of their public services thanks to the informational society; those which have all the infrastructure to use data at their best in order to save energy and water or to regulate the traffic and the pollution thanks to a public transport optimization. We can thus assert that the information is the very core of smart green communities. Its high value is, however, the result of its use and reuse by public administrations, citizens or companies in order to develop new public services or improve the existing ones. In other words, the improvement of living conditions is the result of the use and reuse of data that are collected by public administrations or by companies.
As a consequence, the success of smart green communities relies on the fluidity of the information that is generated in this framework. To put it in another way, smart green communities are not only cities that are connected and that use ICTs in order to improve the efficiency of their environmental policies and to reduce the Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Smart green communities are rather cities that organize and optimize their environmental policies around the information. It is important, therefore, to ensure a smooth flow of information.
Indeed, a community may be connected or even hyper-connected without necessarily having information flowing in a useful way and an appropriate use. The risk in the informational society is less to have a lack of information than to face a profusion of information. This is especially true
