Sep 2015
Accelerating Low-Carbon Development in the World’s Cities

Accelerating Low-Carbon Development in the World’s Cities

Andy Gouldson, Sarah Colenbrander, Andrew Sudmant, Nick Godfrey, Joel Millward-Hopkins, Wanli Fang, Xiao Zhao
Cities
  • Cities are growing engines of economic growth and social change. About 85% of global GDP in 2015 was generated in cities. By 2050, two-thirds of the global population will live in urban areas. Compact, connected and efficient cities can generate stronger growth and job creation, alleviate poverty and reduce investment costs, as well as improve quality of life through lower air pollution and traffic congestion.

Nov 2014
Accessibility in Cities: Transport & Urban Form

Accessibility in Cities: Transport & Urban Form

Philipp Rode, Graham Floater, Nikolas Thomopoulos, James Docherty, Peter Schwinger, Anjali Mahendra, Wanli Fang
Cities
  • A central aspect of urban development is that transport and urban form shape the provision of access to people, goods and services, and information in cities. This paper discusses how different urban accessibility pathways directly impact other measures of human development and environmental sustainability.

Nov 2016
Achieving Uganda’s Development Ambition – The Economic Impact of Green Growth: An Agenda for Action

Achieving Uganda’s Development Ambition – The Economic Impact of Green Growth: An Agenda for Action

Government of Uganda, Economic Policy Research Centre, Global Green Growth Institute, New Climate Economy, Coalition for Urban Transitions
Region & Country Studies
Dec 2018
Affordable and clean energy for all: Lessons on rooftop solar from Delhi, India

Affordable and clean energy for all: Lessons on rooftop solar from Delhi, India

Ross Gillard, Andrew Sudmant, Andy Gouldson, Lucy Oates
Cities
  • This paper finds that clear national leadership supporting municipal authorities to incorporate innovative business models that help low income households to access renewable energy is critical.

Nov 2016
Africa’s New Climate Economy: Economic Transformation and Social and Environmental Change

Africa’s New Climate Economy: Economic Transformation and Social and Environmental Change

Milan Brahmbhatt, Russell Bishop
Region & Country Studies
  • A faster pace of economic transformation will provide Africa with potential to make progress on three closely linked objectives: achieving robust long-term growth; promoting rapid poverty reduction and social inclusion; and acting to reduce climate risk.

Mar 2015
Analysis of Public Policies That Unintentionally Encourage and Subsidize Urban Sprawl

Analysis of Public Policies That Unintentionally Encourage and Subsidize Urban Sprawl

Todd Litman
Cities
  • Sprawl imposes more than $400 billion dollars in external costs and $625 billion in internal costs annually in the U.S. These findings indicate that smart growth policies which encourage more efficient development can provide large economic, social and environmental benefits. Although these costs reflect North American conditions, the results are transferable to developing countries.

Nov 2016
Better Cities, Better Growth: India’s Urban Opportunity

Better Cities, Better Growth: India’s Urban Opportunity

Meenu Tewari, Nick Godfrey
CitiesRegion & Country Studies
  • India is experiencing an urban transformation. Given the rapidity of change and the long-lived nature of urban form and infrastructure, the decisions that India’s policy-makers take in the next 5–15 years will lock in its urban pathway for decades to come.

Sep 2015
Better Growth, Better Cities: Rethinking and Redirecting Urbanization in Africa

Better Growth, Better Cities: Rethinking and Redirecting Urbanization in Africa

Anton Cartwright
CitiesRegion & Country Studies
  • The African continent is undergoing an unprecedented phase of urbanisation. Twenty two million people are added to Africa’s cities every year. The estimated 1.34 billion people that will live in African cities in 2050 in the midst of unprecedented climate instability poses a critical challenge to Africa’s future economic and social development.

Aug 2017
Better Urban Growth in Tanzania: A Preliminary Exploration of the Opportunities and Challenges

Better Urban Growth in Tanzania: A Preliminary Exploration of the Opportunities and Challenges

Leah Worrall, Sarah Colenbrander, Ian Palmer, Fortunata Makene, Desmond Mushi, Tausi Kida, Mussa Martine, Nick Godfrey
CitiesRegion & Country Studies
  • Tanzania has the sixth highest rate of urban population growth in the world, but so far it has been largely informal and unmanaged. This paper offers recommendations for managing Tanzania’s urban growth at the country level.

Oct 2015
Bringing Clean, Safe, Affordable Cooking Energy to Households Across Africa: An Agenda for Action

Bringing Clean, Safe, Affordable Cooking Energy to Households Across Africa: An Agenda for Action

Fiona Lambe, Marie Jürisoo, Hannah Wanjiru, Jacqueline Senyagwa
EnergyRegion & Country Studies
  • The majority of sub-Saharan households cook using traditional biomass stoves, and 200 million more will do so by 2020. While the rest of the world modernizes its cooking methods and ends use of biomass, sub-Saharan Africa is the only region expected to have more people using these cookstoves due to population growth.

Oct 2015
Building Electricity Supplies in Africa for Growth and Universal Access

Building Electricity Supplies in Africa for Growth and Universal Access

Andrew Scott
EnergyRegion & Country Studies
  • What happens to clean infrastructure finance when countries are big and fast-growing but have immature financial systems and a scarcity of long-term domestic investors? The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) compares two different financing models from middle income countries: the highly centralized model of Brazil and the decentralized model from India.

Feb 2018
Building Thriving, Low-Carbon Cities: An Overview of Policy Options for National Governments

Building Thriving, Low-Carbon Cities: An Overview of Policy Options for National Governments

Derik Broekhoff, Georgia Piggot, Peter Erickson
Cities
  • This report clarifies for the first time the specific role of national leadership and policies in helping cities rise to the challenges of urbanization and brings together an overview of options available to national governments.

Oct 2016
Challenges and Opportunities for Efficient Land Use in Mozambique: Taxes, Financing, and Infrastructure

Challenges and Opportunities for Efficient Land Use in Mozambique: Taxes, Financing, and Infrastructure

Amanda de Albuquerque, Andrew Hobbs
FinanceInfrastructureLand UseRegion & Country Studies
  • This paper examines the challenges and opportunities for investing in agriculture and natural resources management, with the goal of laying out next steps toward more efficient and sustainable land use in Mozambique.

Nov 2014
China and The New Climate Economy

China and The New Climate Economy

Region & Country Studies
  • The ultimate goals of economic growth are to expand human freedom and provide a better, safer and cleaner Earth for both present and future generations. We live in a moment of great opportunities and great challenges. The global economy has the potential to continue to grow 50% in the next 15 years. But the risk of environmental damage and climate change casts a shadow over the prospects for long-term growth.

Nov 2014
Cities and The New Climate Economy: The Transformative Role of Global Urban Growth

Cities and The New Climate Economy: The Transformative Role of Global Urban Growth

Graham Floater, Philipp Rode , Alexis Robert, Chris Kennedy, Dan Hoornweg, Roxana Slavcheva, Nick Godfrey
Cities
  • Urbanisation is one of the most important drivers of productivity and growth in the global economy. Between 2014 and 2050, the urban population is projected to increase by around 2.5 billion people, reaching 66% of the global population.

Nov 2017
Connected Urban Growth: Public-Private Collaborations for Transforming Urban Mobility

Connected Urban Growth: Public-Private Collaborations for Transforming Urban Mobility

Diego Canales, Shannon Bouton, Elaine Trimble, Julia Thayne, Larissa Da Silva, Srikanth Shastry, Stefan Knupfer, Martin Powell
Cities
  • New mobility services could improve the lives of all urban inhabitants. This first ever global survey finds that applying three types of new mobility services – electric, on-demand minibuses, subsidized shared rides, and trip-planning and ticketing apps – can make public transport more affordable, accessible and sustainable, if integrated properly.

Mar 2017
Decarbonization of Indian Railways

Decarbonization of Indian Railways

Charith Konda, Saurabh Trivedi, Gireesh Shrimali
InfrastructureRegion & Country Studies
  • This paper identifies different potential pathways to decarbonization of Indian Railways by 2030 and examines their cost-effectiveness and feasibility.

Sep 2017
Demystifying Compact Urban Growth: Evidence From 300 Studies From Across the World

Demystifying Compact Urban Growth: Evidence From 300 Studies From Across the World

Gabriel Ahlfeldt, Elisabetta Pietrostefani
Cities
  • Most developed countries now pursue policies that implicitly or explicitly aim at promoting compact urban form. This report analyses more than 300 academic papers that study the effects of compact urban form.

Sep 2018
Developing Prosperous and Inclusive Cities in Africa – National Urban Policies to the Rescue?

Developing Prosperous and Inclusive Cities in Africa – National Urban Policies to the Rescue?

Anton Cartwright, Ian Palmer, Anna Taylor, Edgar Pieterse, Susan Parnell, Sarah Colenbrander
CitiesRegion & Country Studies
  • New research by the African Centre for Cities for the Coalition for Urban Transitions sets out the specific role African national governments can play to to guide the transformation of cities, support municipal authorities, and unlock major investment for infrastructure.

Nov 2016
Driving Low-Carbon Growth Through Business and Investor Action

Driving Low-Carbon Growth Through Business and Investor Action

Nicolette Bartlett, Eliot Whittington, Shirin Reuvers, Katharine Thoday
Business
  • Achieving climate and development goals without the full backing of business and investors is not possible. Fortunately, evidence shows that more and more businesses and investors are taking a lead – and saving costs and making money in the process.

Jul 2015
Driving Sustainable Development Through Better Infrastructure: Key Elements of a Transformation Program

Driving Sustainable Development Through Better Infrastructure: Key Elements of a Transformation Program

Amar Bhattacharya, Jeremy Oppenheim, Nicholas Stern
FinanceInfrastructure
  • This report finds that growth strategies which fail to tackle poverty or climate change will prove to be unsustainable, and vice versa. A common denominator to the success of both agendas is infrastructure development.

Dec 2014
Emissions Reduction Potential

Emissions Reduction Potential

New Climate Economy
Technical Notes
  • The New Climate Economy project has estimated the extent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions that could result by 2030 from undertaking some of the measures and actions discussed in our 2014 annual report Better Growth, Better Climate.

Oct 2015
Ensuring New Infrastructure is Climate-Smart

Ensuring New Infrastructure is Climate-Smart

James Rydge, Michael Jacobs, Ilmi ranof
Infrastructure
  • About US$90 trillion in infrastructure investment is needed globally by 2030 to achieve global growth expectations, particularly in developing countries. To achieve this, infrastructure investment needs to be both scaled up and climate objectives need to be integrated due to climate risks.

Jul 2015
Estimates of Emissions Reduction Potential for the 2015 Report

Estimates of Emissions Reduction Potential for the 2015 Report

New Climate Economy
Technical Notes
  • The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate’s 2015 report Seizing the Global Opportunity: Partnerships for Better Growth and a Better Climate identifies actions in ten key areas which can simultaneously foster economic growth and development and reduce projected greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Jan 2016
Financing Change: How to Mobilize Private Sector Financing for Sustainable Infrastructure

Financing Change: How to Mobilize Private Sector Financing for Sustainable Infrastructure

Aaron Bielenberg, Mike Kerlin, Jeremy Oppenheim, Melissa Roberts
FinanceInfrastructure
  • After the Paris agreement, many countries are looking to scale their investment in infrastructure that is socially inclusive, low carbon, and climate resilient. The huge quantity of investment required means that establishing the right conditions to attract private-sector investment is critical.

Dec 2016
Financing the Urban Transition for Sustainable Development: Better Finance for Better Cities

Financing the Urban Transition for Sustainable Development: Better Finance for Better Cities

Nick Godfrey, Xiao Zhao
CitiesFinance
  • In urban infrastructure the investment decisions taken today will shape tomorrow. Despite the critical importance of infrastructure for urban development, financing to scale up smarter, more sustainable urban infrastructure remains an immense challenge, particularly in emerging and developing economies.

Sep 2017
Financing the Urban Transition: Policymakers’ Summary

Financing the Urban Transition: Policymakers’ Summary

Graham Floater, Dan Dowling, Denise Chan, Matthew Ulterino, Juergen Braunstein, Tim McMinn
CitiesFinanceInfrastructure
  • Urbanisation is one of the most important potential drivers of productivity and growth in the global economy. But if countries and cities are to capture the productivity benefits of urban growth while minimising the costs, cities will need to shift to a more economically and environmentally sustainable growth pattern. This policy brief focuses on the role of national governments in mobilising and directing urban finance, with the aim of supporting policymakers and practitioners to think systematically about financing compact, connected, and coordinated urban development.

Nov 2016
Finding the Pipeline: Project Preparation for Sustainable Infrastructure

Finding the Pipeline: Project Preparation for Sustainable Infrastructure

Darius Nassiry, Smita Nakhooda, Sam Barnard
FinanceInfrastructure
  • Project preparation for sustainable infrastructure needs to be faster, greener and better to ensure sustainable development consistent with internationally agreed goals.

Nov 2015
Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform in sub-Saharan Africa: From Rhetoric to Reality

Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform in sub-Saharan Africa: From Rhetoric to Reality

Shelagh Whitley, Laurie van der Burg
EnergyRegion & Country Studies
  • The costs of fossil fuel subsidies far outweigh the benefits when considering the full economic, social, and environmental impact of these subsidies in sub-Saharan Africa. However, efforts to dismantle fossil fuel subsidies in sub-Saharan Africa are hampered by a lack of transparency, reliance on fossil fuels to support national development strategies, special interest agendas, and weak institutional capacity to communicate and support reform.

Nov 2015
Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform: From Rhetoric to Reality

Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform: From Rhetoric to Reality

Shelagh Whitley, Laurie van der Burg
Energy
  • Worldwide, a significant proportion of the private sector receives some level of support, interventions and subsidies from the public sector. In the specific case of energy subsidies, of which fossil fuels are a subset, their use has been historically linked to supporting energy security, domestic energy production and access to energy.

Sep 2016
Galvanising low-carbon innovation

Galvanising low-carbon innovation

Jason Eis, Russell Bishop, Philip Gradwell
EnergyFinance
  • Innovation is a fundamental engine of long-term economic growth, and a critical driver for reducing emissions and tackling climate risk. There is a need to scale up innovation efforts to reduce emissions cost-effectively beyond 2030 consistent with limiting dangerous climate change, in particular through supporting research, development and demonstration (RD&D) for technologies which have not yet been deployed at scale and are unlikely to without strong government support.

Dec 2017
Global Review of Finance For Sustainable Urban Infrastructure

Global Review of Finance For Sustainable Urban Infrastructure

Graham Floater, Dan Dowling, Denise Chan, Matthew Ulterino, Juergen Braunstein, Tim McMinn, Ehtisham Ahmed
Cities
  • This paper is a background review representing part of the initial phase of the Financing the Urban Transition work programme. The review builds on a growing body of research that highlights both the importance of national sustainable infrastructure and the need to develop more effective and efficient financing mechanisms for delivering compact, connected cities that meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. While progress has been made in both these areas over the last five years, there remains a policy gap between the international/national level and the municipal level.

Oct 2017
Green Industrialisation and Entrepreneurship in Africa

Green Industrialisation and Entrepreneurship in Africa

Milan Brahmbhatt, Catlyne Haddaoui, John Page
Region & Country Studies
  • Changing global trends are creating new opportunities for economic transformation and green industrialization in Africa. Policies that encourage economic transformation and ‘green growth’, combined with entrepreneurship, could enable Africa to achieve a clean, resource-efficient modern economy.

Jan 2017
Green Investment Banks: Innovative Public Financial Institutions Scaling up Private, Low-carbon Investment

Green Investment Banks: Innovative Public Financial Institutions Scaling up Private, Low-carbon Investment

OECD, New Climate Economy
FinanceInfrastructure
  • This paper describes the relatively new phenomenon of publicly-capitalized green investment banks and examines why they are being created and how they are mobilizing private investment.

Oct 2015
Implementing Effective Carbon Pricing

Implementing Effective Carbon Pricing

James Rydge
Finance
  • Strong, predictable and rising carbon prices send an important signal to markets and can reduce greenhouse gas emissions without harming the economy. Around 40 national jurisdictions and over 20 cities, states and regions, have adopted or are planning explicit carbon prices, covering about 12% of global GHG emissions.

Apr 2015
India: Pathways to Sustaining Rapid Development in a New Climate Economy

India: Pathways to Sustaining Rapid Development in a New Climate Economy

Milan Brahmbhatt, Rajat Kathuria
Region & Country Studies
  • This paper argues that India’s efforts to achieve rapid, inclusive and sustainable development have been hampered in the past by pervasive inefficiencies that arise from market, policy and institutional failures and weaknesses. Efforts to address these weaknesses in a comprehensive manner can significantly increase the pace of improvement in the well-being of the population while also better tackling environmental and climate risks.

Dec 2014
Infrastructure Investment Needs of a Low-Carbon Scenario

Infrastructure Investment Needs of a Low-Carbon Scenario

New Climate Economy
InfrastructureTechnical Notes
  • This note describes the Commission’s assessment of future infrastructure investment needs. It presents projections for a baseline scenario, and the estimated incremental investment required for a low-carbon scenario. It sets out the sources used and provides an overview of the estimates and modelling undertaken by the New Climate Economy (NCE) network.

Dec 2017
Integrating national policies to deliver compact, connected cities: an overview of transport and housing

Integrating national policies to deliver compact, connected cities: an overview of transport and housing

Philipp Rode, Catarina Heeckt, Rudiger Ahrend, Oscar Huerta Melchor, Alexis Robert, Nicole Badstuber, Andrew Hoolachan, Corina Kwami
Cities
  • This report explores the ways in which urban policy sectors are integrated (or fragmented) in ten case study countries: China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. The analysis is based on the most recent and authoritative national-level policy documents.

Apr 2016
Investing at Least a Trillion Dollars a Year in Clean Energy

Investing at Least a Trillion Dollars a Year in Clean Energy

Julia Zuckerman, Jana Frejova, Ilmi Granoff, David Nelson
EnergyFinance
  • Energy demand is projected to grow by a third in the next 15 years. A rapid scale-up of low-carbon energy sources and energy efficiency is essential to drive global growth, reduce the air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) associated with fossil fuel use and help provide reliable access to modern energy for those who lack it. This need has become more urgent following the global commitment made in the UN Paris Agreement in December 2015 to reducing net GHG emissions to zero in the second half of the century.

Apr 2017
Lessons and Innovations to Spur Green Investment in Developing Countries

Lessons and Innovations to Spur Green Investment in Developing Countries

Climate Policy Initiative, New Climate Economy
Finance
  • This brief compiles key lessons on how governments and public finance institutions can reduce risks and costs and thus attract green investment.

Dec 2015
Models for Financing Clean Infrastructure in Middle Income Countries

Models for Financing Clean Infrastructure in Middle Income Countries

Anshuman Sahoo, David Nelson, Andrew Goggins
FinanceInfrastructureLand UseRegion & Country Studies
  • What happens to clean infrastructure finance when countries are big and fast-growing but have immature financial systems and a scarcity of long-term domestic investors? The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) compares two different financing models from middle income countries: the highly centralized model of Brazil and the decentralized model from India.

Mar 2019
National Transport Policy and Cities: Key policy interventions to drive compact and connected urban growth

National Transport Policy and Cities: Key policy interventions to drive compact and connected urban growth

Philipp Rode, Catarina Heeckt , Nuno da Cruz
Cities
  • This paper provides a foundation for national transport policy-makers to begin pragmatic but ambitious conversations about actions they can take to make cities more accessible.

May 2015
Natural Gas: Guardrails for a Potential Climate Bridge

Natural Gas: Guardrails for a Potential Climate Bridge

Michael Lazarus, Kevin Tempest, Per Klevnäs, Jan Ivar Korsbakken
Energy
  • This analysis weighs the potential benefits and risks of relying on expanded natural gas expansion and use as a “bridge” to a lower-carbon energy future, based on a review of the research literature and of recent modelling studies, as well as interviews with sector experts. It also examines the extent to which natural gas could play such a role, and the conditions that would be required.

May 2015
Oil Prices and The New Climate Economy

Oil Prices and The New Climate Economy

Per Klevnäs, Nicholas Stern, Jana Frejova
Energy
  • After several years at high levels, oil prices dropped by more than half between June 2014 and January 2015, leading many to ask questions about the implications for the economy and for countries’ and companies’ energy choices. Although such price swings have happened before, the issues being discussed are indeed quite important.

Nov 2014
Path Dependence, Innovation and the Economics of Climate Change

Path Dependence, Innovation and the Economics of Climate Change

Philippe Aghion, Cameron Hepburn, Alexander Teytelboym, Dimitri Zenghelis
Business
  • Shifting our fossil-fuelled civilisation to clean modes of production and consumption requires deep transformations in our energy and economic systems. Innovation in physical technologies and social behaviours is key to this transformation. But innovation has not been at the heart of economic models of climate change.

Oct 2015
Phasing Down the Use of Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

Phasing Down the Use of Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

Nathan Borgford-Parnell, Maxime Beaugrand, Stephen O. Anderson, Durwood Zaelke
Business
  • Hydrofluorocarbons the fastest-growing greenhouse gas (GHG) in much of the world, increasing at a rate of 10–15% per year. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are used as refrigerants, as solvents, in fire protection and in insulating foams. They are the fastest-growing greenhouse gas (GHG) in much of the world, increasing at a rate of 10–15% per year.

Jan 2015
Quantifying the Multiple Benefits from Low-Carbon Actions in a Greenhouse Gas Abatement Cost Curve Framework

Quantifying the Multiple Benefits from Low-Carbon Actions in a Greenhouse Gas Abatement Cost Curve Framework

New Climate Economy
Technical Notes
  • This paper documents the assumptions and analysis that underlie the presentation and discussion of the exhibit on the Global GHG Abatement Benefit and Co-benefit Curve: 2030 in our 2014 Better Growth, Better Climate report. This analysis builds on the concept of a marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve, presenting this instead in terms of the marginal abatement benefits.

Sep 2015
Raising Ambition to Reduce International Aviation and Maritime Emissions

Raising Ambition to Reduce International Aviation and Maritime Emissions

Ipek Gençsü, Miyuki Hino
Business
  • Global aviation and shipping together produce about 5% of global CO2 emissions, and by 2050 this is expected to rise to 10–32%. Yet these sectors offer some of the most cost-effective emission reductions available today, particularly through improved fuel efficiency.

Nov 2015
Raising Energy Efficiency Standards to Global Best

Raising Energy Efficiency Standards to Global Best

Russell Bishop
Energy
  • Greater energy efficiency can benefit countries at all stages of development, but particularly fast-growing economies trying to achieve universal energy access with limited resources. By offering cost-effective opportunities to avoid new energy supply, energy efficiency is increasingly recognised as the “first fuel”.

Dec 2016
Reaching India’s Renewable Energy Targets: The Role of Institutional Investors

Reaching India’s Renewable Energy Targets: The Role of Institutional Investors

Vivek Sen, Kuldeep Sharma, Gireesh Shrimali
EnergyFinanceRegion & Country Studies
  • The renewable energy sector in India will require $189 billion in additional investment to meet its goal of 175GW by 2022. Institutional investors have the potential to bridge this gap.

Dec 2018
Reduced waste and improved livelihoods for all: Lessons on waste management from Ahmedabad, India

Reduced waste and improved livelihoods for all: Lessons on waste management from Ahmedabad, India

Lucy Oates, Andrew Sudmant, Andy Gouldson, Ross Gillard
Cities
  • This paper analyses lessons from Ahmedabad, India, where collaboration between the municipality and local workers’ unions led to the integration of informal waste pickers into formal municipal waste management systems.

Dec 2018
Resilient and affordable housing for all: Lessons on house building from Kochi and Trivandrum, India

Resilient and affordable housing for all: Lessons on house building from Kochi and Trivandrum, India

Ross Gillard, Abhijit Datey, Andrew Sudmant , Lucy Oates, Andy Gouldson
Cities
  • This paper analyses lessons from Kochi and Trivandrum, Kerala, India, where municipal government and community partnerships on house building projects have led to better quality new housing stock while reducing costs and environmental impacts.

Dec 2015
Restoring and Protecting Agricultural and Forest Landscapes and Increasing Agricultural Productivity

Restoring and Protecting Agricultural and Forest Landscapes and Increasing Agricultural Productivity

Christopher Delgado, Michael Wolosin, Nigel Purvis
Land Use
  • A staggering one-third of all agricultural landscapes are now degraded, mostly in developing countries, and a net 12 million hectares (ha) continue to be degraded yearly. But commitment to change is growing.

Apr 2019
Scaling Up Investment for Sustainable Urban Infrastructure: A Guide to National and Subnational Reform

Scaling Up Investment for Sustainable Urban Infrastructure: A Guide to National and Subnational Reform

Ehtisham Ahmad, Dan Dowling , Denise Chan, Sarah Colenbrander , Nick Godfrey
CitiesFinance
  • This paper recommends a coordinated or systems approach to scaling up financing for sustainable infrastructure in cities.

Oct 2014
Seeing is Believing: Creating a New Climate Economy in the United States

Seeing is Believing: Creating a New Climate Economy in the United States

Nicholas Bianco, Kristin Meek, Rebecca Gasper, Michael Obeiter, Sarah Forbes, Nate Aden
Region & Country Studies
  • A growing body of evidence shows that economic growth is not in conflict with efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Experience at the state and national levels demonstrates that well-designed policies can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States while providing overall net public benefits, for example, through improved public health, as well as direct financial benefits to businesses and consumers.

Nov 2014
Steering urban growth: governance, policy and finance

Steering urban growth: governance, policy and finance

Graham Floater,, Philipp Rode, Bruno Friedel, Alexis Robert
Cities
  • We live in an urban age. Over half the world’s population now lives in urban areas, while the urban population is expected to reach 60% by 2030. At the same time, the importance of cities for national economic growth and climate change continues to increase. Three groups of cities will be particularly important for the global economy and climate: Emerging Cities, Global Megacities and Mature Cities. When combined, these 468 cities are projected to contribute over 60% of global GDP growth and over half of global energy-related emissions growth between 2012 and 2030 under business as usual.

Feb 2015
Strategies to Achieve Economic and Environmental Gains by Reducing Food Waste

Strategies to Achieve Economic and Environmental Gains by Reducing Food Waste

Andrew Perry, Keith James, Stephen LeRoux
Land Use
  • An estimated one third of all food produced in the world ends up as waste. Reducing food waste is good for the economy, good for food security and good for the climate. In this report, the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) estimates the value of global consumer food waste at more than US$400 billion per year.

Apr 2019
Supporting decent livelihoods through sustainable service provision: Lessons on solid waste management from Kampala, Uganda

Supporting decent livelihoods through sustainable service provision: Lessons on solid waste management from Kampala, Uganda

Lucy Oates, Ross Gillard , Peter Kasaija , Andrew Sudmant , Andy Gouldson
CitiesRegion & Country Studies
  • This paper offers lessons from Kampala, Uganda, where community-based organisations and small enterprises play an important role in municipal solid waste management, especially in informal settlements.

Jun 2018
Supporting Smart Urban Development: Successful Investing in Density

Supporting Smart Urban Development: Successful Investing in Density

Professor Kathy Pain, Daniel Black, Dr. Jon Blower, Professor Sue Grimmond, Dr. Alistair Hunt, Dr. Stanimira Milcheva, Dr. Ben Crawford , Nick Dale, Dr. Sam Doolin, Dr. Senjuti Manna, Dr. Shuai Shi , Dr. Ruth Pugh
Cities
  • This paper demonstrates how investors as well as citizens benefit from compact urban forms with good public transport connections, shared green spaces, and a mix of housing, shops, services and businesses rather than urban sprawl.

Mar 2019
Sustainable urban infrastructure for all: Lessons on solar-powered street lights from Kampala and Jinja, Uganda

Sustainable urban infrastructure for all: Lessons on solar-powered street lights from Kampala and Jinja, Uganda

Ross Gillard, Lucy Oates, Peter Kasaija, Andrew Sudmant , Andy Gouldson
CitiesEnergyRegion & Country Studies
  • This paper offers lessons from the cities of Kampala and Jinja in Uganda, where solar street lighting has proven cheaper to build and operate than conventional street lights.

Sep 2015
The Contribution of African Cities to the Economy and Climate

The Contribution of African Cities to the Economy and Climate

CitiesRegion & Country StudiesTechnical Notes
  • This paper provides population, GDP and carbon emissions estimates up to 2030 for 69 cities across 35 countries in sub-Saharan Africa for which data is available (primarily with populations above 0.5 million based on new top-down analysis commissioned for the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate). Estimates of carbon emissions at the city level are typically unavailable – particularly for sub-Saharan African cities – and to our knowledge this is the first time that these calculations have been attempted. The analysis has been undertaken using the Oxford Economics’ Global Cities 2030 database (covering 750 cities) and other published data.

Jun 2018
The Economic and Social Benefits of Low-Carbon Cities: A Systematic Review of the Evidence

The Economic and Social Benefits of Low-Carbon Cities: A Systematic Review of the Evidence

Andy Gouldson, Andrew Sudmant, Haneen Khreis, Effie Papargyropoulou
Cities
  • This paper demonstrates that there are many synergies between aspirations for urban development and the imperative for climate action. It draws on over 700 papers, focusing on the literature on low-carbon measures in the buildings, transport, and waste sectors.

Nov 2014
The Economic Case for Low-Carbon Cities

The Economic Case for Low-Carbon Cities

Andy Gouldson, Sarah Colenbrander, Faye McAnulla, Andrew Sudmant, Niall Kerr, Paola Sakai, Stephen Hall, Effie Papargyropoulou, Johan Kuylenstierna
Cities
  • This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the results of five studies that examined the economic case for investment in low-carbon development in five cities: Leeds in the UK, Kolkata in India, Lima in Peru, Johor Bahru in Malaysia and Palembang in Indonesia.

Mar 2017
The Knowns and Unknowns of China’s Green Finance

The Knowns and Unknowns of China’s Green Finance

Sean Gilbert, Lihuan Zhou
FinanceInfrastructureRegion & Country Studies
  • China’s recent policy reforms reveal China’s ambitious plan to green its financial system and finance sustainable infrastructure. This paper reviews this ambitious green finance package, highlights remaining uncertainties, and provides recommendations for success.

Sep 2015
Towards Efficient Land Use in Brazil

Towards Efficient Land Use in Brazil

Juliano Assunação
Land UseRegion & Country Studies
  • There is significant further potential for simultaneously promoting economic growth and improving ecosystem protection within Brazil’s rural landscape. This report shows substantial improvements are already underway but better-functioning markets and policies can boost the pace of change and help the country to realize latent land use efficiency gains

Feb 2015
Unlocking the Power of Ethiopia’s Cities

Unlocking the Power of Ethiopia’s Cities

Firew Woldeyes, Russell Bishop
CitiesRegion & Country Studies
  • Ethiopia has recognised the critical role that well-managed urbanisation will play in realising its ambition to achieve middle income status by 2025. Given the extended lifecycle of urban infrastructure, a small number of key decisions over the next five years will shape and lock in Ethiopia’s urban future for many decades to come.

Jan 2016
Unlocking the Power of Urban Transport Systems for Better Growth and a Better Climate

Unlocking the Power of Urban Transport Systems for Better Growth and a Better Climate

Xiao Zhao, Anjali Mahendra, Nick Godfrey, Holger Dalkmann, Philipp Rode, Graham Floater
CitiesTechnical Notes
  • This paper provides a review of how compact, connected, and coordinated cities can help generate stronger growth, create jobs, alleviate poverty, and significantly reduce the cost of providing services and infrastructure.

Nov 2014
What Impact Can Local Economic Development in Cities Have on Global GHG Emissions? Assessing the Evidence

What Impact Can Local Economic Development in Cities Have on Global GHG Emissions? Assessing the Evidence

Carrie Fisher, Peter Erickson
Cities
  • City governments are increasingly taking an active role in economic development, working to attract and retain businesses. Urban leaders around the world have different resources, strengths and priorities, but cities’ economic development and competitiveness efforts share many common elements.