ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the issues of water and energy poverty in the European Union. It shows that how policies of ecological modernization, and especially those based on economic instruments not only may have increased urban inequalities but may have outrun their usefulness for reformist urban governance as well. The chapter discusses the effects of sustainability and ecological modernization on urban environments, focusing on basic resource flows such as water and energy. It argues that of the three traditional legs attached to sustainability, the economic and environmental legs have generally performed reasonably well in many respects, especially when comparing the current state of certain parameters with their past. Sustainability has ceased to be an effective guiding logic and is now being replaced with the more convenient concept of resilience. The chapter attempts to trace the rise of resilience as an overarching socio-ecological concept and its implication for cities and citizens of the Global North.