Cities and Green Growth

OECD’s Green Cities Programme seeks to better understand the concept of green growth in cities; the potential of urban policies for urban and national green growth; and to inform national, sub-national and municipal governments as they seek to address economic and environmental challenges by pursuing green growth.

The programme contributes to the OECD’s horizontal work on green growth, initiated at the request of Ministers of the 34 countries who signed a Green Growth Declaration in 2009, thereby committing to strengthen their efforts to pursue green growth strategies as part of their responses to the crisis.

Green Growth in Cities synthesis report                                                                                              

Green Growth in Cities presents the OECD Green Cities Programme’s main findings and policy recommendations, and provides a preliminary approach to measuring green growth in cities. The report draws on findings and evidence from in-depth urban level green growth studies (Paris, Chicago, Stockholm and Kitakyushu) and two national level studies on urban green growth (China and Korea). It also draws on data from the OECD Metropolitan Database. The report’s recommendations are primarily addressed to policy makers in OECD countries. Numerous findings and recommendations are nonetheless valuable for non-member countries, notably for those with high levels and rates of urbanisation.

• To read a summary this report click here
• To read the press release for the report click here

 City-level urban green growth studies

Four green growth in cities studies have been carried out in 2011 and 2012, Green Growth in Stockholm, Sweden; Green Growth in Kitakyushu, Japan; Cities and Green Growth: the case of the Tri-State Metropolitan Area; and Cities and Green Growth: the case of the Paris/Ile-de-France region; The studies assess the economic and environmental performance of these cities and metropolitan areas, identify green growth opportunities, review green growth policies for urban sectors, and assess innovation and governance for green growth. The analytical approach draws on the OECD Green Cities Programme’s conceptual framework. The publications are part of the OECD Green Growth Studies series and inform the Green Cities Programme’s synthesis report Green Growth in Cities.

National-level urban green growth studies

Urbanisation and Green Growth in China was produced in cooperation with the China Development Research Foundation. It assesses urban and environmental trends, externalities of urbanization, and policies and governance for urban green growth in China.

 A chapter on the Korean Strategy for Green Growth and its implementation in urban areas assesses the contributions of sub-national governments to Korea’s National Strategy for Green Growth and identifies the main challenges for effective implementation at the local level.

Urban green growth Conceptual Framework and Metropolitan Database

• The working paper Cities and Green Growth provided a conceptual framework for the green growth in cities studies
• The OECD Metropolitan Database provided data on environmental indicators.

 Related publications

Contacts: Alexis Robert, alexis.robert@oecd.org and David Gierten, david.gierten@oecd.org

Cities and Climate Change

ISBN Number:
9789264063662
Publication Date:
29/11/2010

A new OECD book, Cities and Climate Change, shows how city and metropolitan regional governments can work in tandem with national governments to respond to climate change. Urban policies can contribute to a global greenhouse gas mitigation agenda and reduce the overall cost of emissions abatement, due to the impact of lifestyles, spatial form and transportation choices on greenhouse gas emissions, and the opportunity to serve as policy laboratories. Local-level financing deserves attention: urban revenue sources can be greened, such as through congestion charges and reforming property taxes that favour sprawl, and new financial instruments are needed, such as simplified, multisectoral urban involvement in the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation and carbon markets, as well as generally greater access to international and domestic capital markets. National policies and enabling frameworks can leverage existing local policy experiments, accelerate policy responses and learning, mobilise resources, and support harmonised local greenhouse gas inventory methods.

Cities at the Frontlines of Vulnerability and Adaptation

Urban action is a cornerstone of efforts to limit or avoid climate impacts on infrastructure, people and economies. With their in-depth knowledge of the local landscape, urban policymakers are at the frontlines of efforts to adapt and reduce vulnerabilities to climate change. Focusing on the economic costs and benefits of action, we have identified strategies to increase cities’ contribution to adaptation in both developed and developing countries. Our research has informed government action on adaptation with the following tools:

• A conceptual framework for impact and benefit assessment at urban scale, an assessment of global port city vulnerability and response options, and two case studies (Copenhagen and Mumbai)
• An investigation of strategies to integrate adaptation at city scale in development co-operation and planning in developing countries.

Contacts: Jan Corfee-Morlot (urban vulnerability and adaptation), jan.corfee-morlot@oecd.org,
Shardul Agrawala (adaptation policy and development cooperation), shardul.agrawala@oecd.org, and Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, lamia.kamal-chaoui@oecd.org.

The OECD Urban Roundtable of Mayors and Ministers

The OECD Urban Roundtable of Mayors and Ministers provides the preeminent forum to develop intergovernmental approaches for stronger, more effective urban policy. With participation from mayors, national ministers, former heads of state, and civil society, the Roundtable acknowledges the interdependence among urban policy actors and the metropolitan implications of policies in areas such as transportation, education, and environment.

• 4th OECD Roundtable of Mayors and Ministers: Mobilizing Investments for Urban Sustainability, Job Creation and Resilient Growth
  8 March 2012, Chicago, Illinois, USA
  The Fourth Meeting of the OECD Roundtable of Mayors and Ministers was hosted by the City of Chicago. The Roundtable focused on financing and investing in urban sustainability, job creation, and resilient growth as a catalyst for economic recovery.
• 3rd OECD Urban Roundtable for Mayors and Ministers: Cities and Green Growth 
  25 May 2010, Paris, France
  Mayors and Ministers from 21 cities and 34 countries discussed a strategy for cities’ role in a global green growth agenda and called on the OECD to evaluate the impact of urban green growth policies.
• 2nd OECD Urban Roundtable for Mayors and Ministers: Competitive Cities and Climate Change
  9-10 October 2008, Milan, Italy
  Mayors and Ministers endorsed continued policy dialogue and action that strengthens relationships between city competitiveness and climate change.
• 1st OECD Urban Roundtable for Mayors and Ministers: What Policies for Globalising Cities? Rethinking the Urban Policy Agenda
  29-30 March 2007, Madrid, Spain
  National and city-level policymakers established the OECD Urban Roundtable for Mayors and Ministers and examined the future of urban policy in the context of globalisation and the growing challenges for cities.

Contacts: Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, lamia.kamal-chaoui@oecd.org and Suzanne Leprince, suzanne.leprince@oecd.org.

Key Events

• COP17 Durban December 2011
• Roundtable event & press conference on Cities and Carbon Markets April 2011, Paris.
• COP 16, Cancún, Mexico, 8 December 2010, Climate change: What Cancún can do
• Special session on Assessing Local Climate Vulnerability, Impacts, and Assessing Policy Options: Coastal Zones 
  29 June 2009, Marseille, France 
  Focused policy makers’ attention on strategies specific to coastal cities at the Fifth Urban Research Symposium "Cities and Climate Change: Responding to an Urgent Agenda”.
• “Green Cities: New Approaches to Confronting Climate Change”
  11-12 June 2009, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
  Brought together city and regional leaders to explore practical tools for cities to fight climate change and catalyze their economies.
• Special session on urban transport at the OECD Global Forum on Transport and Environment in a Globalising World 
  10-12 November 2008, Guadalajara, Mexico
  Reviewed how selected cities (Mexico City, Santiago, Milan, Berlin and Singapore) have promoted environmentally sustainable transport. Contact: Nils-Axel Braathen, nils-axel.braathen@oecd.org.

Publications & Reports

 Green Cities

• OECD (2012) Kamal-Chaoui , L. and M. Plouin, Cities and Green Growth: Case Study of the Paris/Ile-de-France Region, OECD Regional Development Working Papers 2012/02, OECD, Paris.
• OECD (2011) Hammer, S., L. Kamal-Chaoui, A. Robert and M. Plouin, Cities and Green Growth: A Conceptual Framework, OECD Regional Development Working Papers 2011/08, OECD, Paris.
• OECD (2011) Kamal-Chaoui, L., F. Grazi, J. Joo and M. Plouin, The Implementation of the Korean Green Growth Strategy in Urban Areas, OECD Regional Development Working Papers 2011/02, OECD, Paris.
• OECD (2011) Proceedings of the OECD Roundtable for Mayors and Ministers, May 25, 2010, Paris
• OECD (2010), Cities and Climate Change, OECD, Paris.
• Clapp, C., A. Leseur, O. Sartor, G. Briner and J. Corfee-Morlot (2010), “Cities and Carbon Market Finance: Taking Stock of Cities’ Experience with CDM and JI”, OECD Environment Working Paper 29, OECD, Paris, full report, executive summary.
• OECD (2010), “Cities and Green Growth”, Issues Paper for the 3rd Annual Meeting of the OECD Urban Roundtable Of Mayors And Ministers, OECD, Paris.
• Corfee-Morlot, J., Kamal-Chaoui, L.,Donovan, M.G., Cochran, I., Robert, A. and Teasdale, P.J. (2009), “Cities, Climate Change and Multilevel Governance”, OECD Environment Working Paper 14, OECD, Paris.
• Kamal-Chaoui, Lamia and Alexis Robert (eds.) (2009), “Competitive Cities and Climate Change”, OECD Regional Development Working Paper, OECD, Paris.
• OECD (2009), The Economics of Climate Change Mitigation: Policies and Options for Global Action Beyond 2012, OECD, Paris.
• OECD (2009), “Green Cities: New Approaches to Confronting Climate Change”, Proceedings from the workshop held in Gran Canaria, Spain on 11 June 2009, OECD, Paris.
• OECD (2008), “Competitive Cities and Climate Change”, Proceedings from conference held in Milan on 9-10 October 2008, OECD, Paris.
• OECD (2006), Competitive Cities in the Global Economy, OECD, Paris.
• OECD Metropolitan Reviews and OECD National Urban Policy Reviews: chapters on urban responses to environmental, climate change and green growth challenges (e.g. Reviews of Guangdong, Venice, Toronto, Korea, Poland).

Vulnerability and Adaptation

• OECD (2010), Cities and Climate Change, OECD, Paris.
• Hallegatte, S., N. Ranger, S. Bhattacharya, M. Bachu, S. Priya, K. Dhore, F. Rafique, P. Mathur, N. Naville, F. Henriet, A. Patwardhan, K. Narayanan, S. Ghosh, S. Karmakar, U. Patnaik, A. Abhayankar, S. Pohit, J. Corfee-Morlot, J., C. Herweijer (2010), "Flood Risks, Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Benefits in Mumbai", OECD Environment Working Paper 27, OECD, Paris.
• OECD (2009), Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Development Co-operation: Policy Guidance, OECD, Paris.
• Hallegatte, S., N. Patmore, O. Mestre, P. Dumas, J. Corfee-Morlot, C. Herweijer, R. Muir Wood (2008), “Assessing Climate Change Impacts, Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge Risk in Port Cities: A Case Study on Copenhagen”, OECD Environment Working Paper 3, OECD, Paris.
• Hallegatte, S., F. Henriet, and J. Corfee-Morlot (2008), “The Economics of Climate Change Impacts and Policy Benefits at City Scale: A Conceptual Framework”, OECD Environment Working Paper 4, OECD, Paris.
• Nicholls, R., S. Hanson, C. Herweijer, N. Patmore, S. Hallegatte, J. Corfee-Morlot, J. Chateau, and R. Muir-Wood (2008) “Ranking Port Cities with High Exposure and Vulnerability to Climate Extremes: Exposure Estimates”, OECD Environment Working Paper 1, OECD, Paris. Executive Summary. Supplemental scenario data.
• OECD (2008), OECD Environmental Outlook to 2030, OECD, Paris.
• Hunt, A., and P. Watkiss (2007), “Literature Review on Climate Change Impacts on Urban City Centres: Initial Findings”, OECD, Paris.

Related Programs

Adaptation to climate change
Climate Change
Green Growth
International Transport Forum
Fossil Fuel Subsidies