Geo 2026: Sustainable energy and Curitiba

Sustainable energy can be used again and again without running out.
Countries facing an energy gap seek energy security through a balanced mix and sustainable use.
Education: campaigns teach people to switch off and save energy.
Efficiency and conservation: in industry (efficient machines), transport (public transport, electric vehicles, cycling) and the home (insulation, double glazing, LED bulbs).
Footprints: calculating carbon and ecological footprints shows where to cut use.

Curitiba is often called one of the world's most sustainable cities.
Transport: it pioneered bus rapid transit in 1974, a cheaper alternative to an underground railway, which cuts car use and fuel.
Green space: about 52 m² of public green space per resident, with many parks; flood-prone land was turned into parks instead of concrete defences, and your notes add that sheep are used to trim the grass in some parks, saving fuel.
Recycling: 'Garbage that is not garbage' (from 1989) and the 'Green Exchange' (from 1991), where low-income families trade recyclable waste for fresh food. About 70% of waste has been reported as recycled.
People: environmental education from a young age and pedestrian streets and cycle lanes.

Your checklist asks for energy management in one developed and one developing or emerging country.
Developed: the UK (Climate Change Act 2008, net zero by 2050, offshore wind, coal power phased out).
Emerging: China (the world's largest energy user, mostly coal, but also the largest investor in solar and wind).
Revise these in the lessons 'Energy: demand, impacts and sustainable management' and 'The energy gap and energy security'.

Sustainability means meeting the needs of the present without harming the needs of the future. For energy, that means using less, wasting less and switching to sources that will not run out.
Your notes give three tools:
1. Education: people who understand why saving energy matters are more likely to switch off, recycle and use public transport.
2. Efficiency and conservation in industry (efficient machines), transport (buses, cycling, electric vehicles) and the home (insulation, double glazing, LED bulbs).
3. Footprints: calculating carbon and ecological footprints shows which activities use the most, so people know what to cut.
Curitiba, Brazil uses all three. Bus rapid transit cuts car journeys and fuel use; parks on flood-prone land replaced expensive concrete defences; recycling schemes such as the Green Exchange cut waste; and children learn about the environment at school. Each idea saves energy and improves people's lives at the same time.

Confusing renewable and sustainable: renewable means it will not run out; sustainable also means it does not harm the environment or future generations.
Describing Curitiba without linking to energy: always finish the point, for example 'so fewer cars are used, reducing fuel use and pollution'.
Getting the BRT wrong: it is a bus system with dedicated lanes, not an underground railway.
Forgetting the three areas: the checklist names industry, transport and the home, so give one example from each.
Only describing one case study: you need one developed (UK) and one developing or emerging (China) energy example as well as Curitiba.

Ecological footprint: the area of land and water needed to supply all the resources a person (or population) uses and to absorb their waste. It is wider than a carbon footprint, which only measures greenhouse gases. If everyone lived like the average person in a rich country, the world would need far more land than it has.
More from your Curitiba notes:
Parks: over 50 square metres of green space per resident and more than 30 parks and forests.
Citizen participation: programmes involve citizens in decision-making, increasing awareness of and support for sustainability.
Energy: the city promotes solar and wind energy projects.
Climate resilience: policies focus on climate adaptation, with green areas acting as natural flood control.

Your class used these questions with real mark schemes. The rule for both: 1 mark for a suitable way, plus 1 mark for expanding it, twice.
'Explain two ways transport can be made more sustainable.' (4 marks) Mark scheme ideas: move to electric vehicles to reduce carbon emissions; develop more mass rapid transit or public transport to reduce the number of vehicles emitting greenhouse gases; create more cycle lanes to encourage cycling; build more charging points to encourage people to switch to electric vehicles; car sharing to reduce costs.
'Explain two ways people can use energy more sustainably in their homes.' (4 marks) Mark scheme ideas: improve insulation of roofs and walls to reduce heat loss; replace windows with double glazing to reduce energy lost through windows; change from a gas boiler to a heat pump to reduce fossil fuel use; reduce the thermostat to reduce energy consumption; install solar panels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Notice that each expansion says what it reduces: heat loss, fuel use or emissions.