Cities and Green GrowthOECD Green Cities Programme

Regions for Economic Change Conference24 June 2011 | Brussels

Marissa Plouin OECD

Australia

Austria Belgium Denmark

Czech Republic

Canada

Finland

France

Germany

Hungary

Ireland

Italy Japan Korea

Mexico

New Zealand

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Spain

Slovak Republic

Sweden Switzerland

Turkey

United Kingdom

United States

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Urban density in 2005 (population/ km2)

The logic of city scale action

• Economic role of cities

• Negative externalities

• Contribution to climate change

• Vulnerability to climate change impacts

Opportunities for synergies

Correlation between per capita CO2 emissions in transport and density in predominantly urban areas

2010 Urban Roundtable of Mayors and Ministers www.oecd.org/urban/2010roundtable

Roundtable responded to a call for an evaluation of urban green growth policies to determine best practices, concluding:

• Urban green growth policies can contribute to national competitiveness outcomes

• Strategies are requiring significant up-front investments and long-term financial mechanisms

• Need to bridge gap between national and urban approaches to green growth

• Indicators are needed to measure their impact

OECD Green Cities Programme

• Development of urban green growth indicators

• Thematic working papers and reports

• Case studies to assess policy impacts on green growth

• Technical workshops and political meetings

• A synthesis report on Cities and Green Growth

The conceptual framework | Part I

What do we mean by green growth? Definitions and desirable scenarios

Defining green growth

Green growth means fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that the quality and quantity of natural assets can continue to provide the resources and ecosystem services on which our well-being relies.

To do this, it must catalyze investment, competition and innovation which will underpin sustained growth and give rise to new economic opportunities.

OECD Green Growth Strategy, 2011

Green growth and sustainable development

Scenario 1 – No Impact

Scenario 2 – Green Sectoral Growth

Scenario 3 – Economic Greening

Scenario 4 – Multi-Sectoral Growth

Scenario 5 – Displacement

Scenario 6 – Economic Stagnation/De-Growth

Alternative green growth scenarios

The conceptual framework | Part II

A proposal for a policy framework

A policy framework for an urban green growth agenda

Pro-growth policies

Greening challenges and opportunities

Policy levers

Policy jurisdiction

Goals & values

Socio-technical resources

A policy framework for an urban green growth agenda

Green growth policy synergies:example of transport and mobility

Greening opportunities

Pro-growth policies

Human capital policies

Infrastructure and investment policies

Innovation policies

Mobility policies•Impact on jobs•Impact on demand for green goods•Impact on urban attractiveness

The conceptual framework | Part III

Challenges to advancing an urban green growth agenda

Limits to the urban green growth agenda

• Risk of a zero-sum game among cities? Some urban economies may grow a great deal while other could shrink.

• Cities are not equal: baseline variables

Resource Environment Policy and Economic Environment

•Natural resource base•Climate/geographic conditions•Technology/infrastructure •Urban form/built environment

•Policy competency•Level of engagement •Industrial/economic base•Other economic factors

Gaps in multi-level governanceAdministrative gap Geographical mismatch between the green growth challenge or

opportunity and the administrative boundaries. Policy gap Sectoral fragmentation of policy tasks and powers across ministries

and public agencies within the central government administration as well as among different departments within sub-national government administrations.

Information gap Asymmetry of information across ministries, between levels of government and across local actors involved in specific policy areas.

Capacity gap Insufficient scientific and technical expertise, know-how and infrastructure to design and implement policy.

Funding (or fiscal) gap Insufficient or unstable revenues to implement policy across ministries and levels of government.

Objective gap Diverging or contradictory objectives between levels of government or departments/ministries that compromise the adoption of convergent targets over the long run.

Accountability gap Lack of transparency in policymaking, integrity and institutional quality issues.

Market gap Misalignment between policymaking goals or ambitions and the ability of private sector stakeholders to deliver these goals.

Measuring and monitoring green growth

• Methodological challenges of developing green growth indicators, particularly at the sub-national level

• Builds on OECD efforts to develop metrics that go beyond GDP to measure societal well-being (Measuring Progress) and assess green growth (OECD Green Growth Strategy)

• Currently expanding the Metropolitan Database to include four classes of environmental indicators:– residential density and sprawl– land use and change in land cover– transport use and travel time– urban emissions and air quality

Financing green growth

• Fees and charges – Transportation– Development– Energy

• Local cap-and-trade• Carbon offsets• Public-private partnerships

National policies and frameworks matter

• National pricing signals, e.g. carbon taxes

• National targets and incentives

• Greening urban finance

• Technical assistance and knowledge sharing