Towards a green economy

the failure to charge developers fully for the cost of services and infrastructure new developments require; various tax abatements encouraging home ownership and other public policy measures that facilitate urban sprawl and the use of the private car as a dominant means of transport; and

■ Behavioural response and the rebound effect –

consumers may respond to reduced energy costs (generated by energy efficiency measures) by either increasing per capita energy consumption or by spending savings and increasing overall consumption per head.11

5.2 Enabling strategies

Overcoming this set of barriers and constraints requires a multi-faceted response across different sectors, which are addressed in turn, from governance and planning to incentives and financing.

Figure 5: Enabling conditions, institutional strength and democratic maturity illustrates the breadth of policy instruments and tools that can promote investment in greening cities. Importantly, it correlates their effectiveness over time in relation to the strength of local institutions and the strength of the democratic system in different urban contexts. By plotting the enabling conditions available in systems with both strong and weak institutions against weaker and more mature democracies, it suggests that the process of change is in most cases a long one, and requires the development of mature institutions before long-term change can be implemented, whilst recognising that civil-society activism and autonomous green initiatives can be effective in the short-to-medium term, especially in weaker institutions and less mature democracies.

All of these transition factors suggest that it is critical to develop policy frameworks not just at the local and urban level, but also at the regional and national level. More broadly, policy makers need to look at the conditions that will enable cities in different parts of the world to make the transition to green economy models in relation to the maturity of their own political infrastructure.

To overcome existing barriers and constraints, joining up is essential. For example, engineering solutions need to be complemented with fiscal instruments such as carbon pricing (Birol and Keppler 2000, in Allan et al. 2006) to harvest the benefits of improved technical efficiencies, while avoiding undesirable rebound effects.

11. see Allan et al. (2006). However, von Weizsäcker et al. (2009) suggest that energy cost savings can provide households with the capital needed to invest in further energy saving measures and the State to invest in R&D in renewable energies, thus even enabling a positive feedback loop.

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Civil society activism

Weak democracy Policies

Legislative reform

Proposals

Co-delivery Monitoring Advisory

Autonomous green

initiatives

Planning systems Regulatory tools Information Financial instruments

Mature democracy Time

F igure 5: Enabling conditions, institutional strength and democratic maturity

remains difficult to achieve green city synergies which simultaneously deliver economic prosperity, reduce resource intensity and promote social inclusion because economic added value is derived from processes and regimes that fail to account properly for environmental and social externalities. Until this issue is properly addressed, it is unlikely that fundamental economic enabling conditions to advance green cities will be found.

It

An efficient global response to the problem of climate change will therefore entail up-front finance and technological support to enable fast-growing cities in the developing world to “leap-frog” developed world cities in planning and installing the latest, most efficient, infrastructure that will bring down resource intensity and save money for decades. But it is to governance that we first turn, to establish the principle for core enabling strategies that can bring about change.

5.3 Governance

Governance encompasses the formal and informal relationships linking the various institutions involved in the urban system – the local, metropolitan, regional, state, civil society and private-sector actors – and its quality depends on the depth of reciprocity, trust, and legitimacy. These are enhanced by mechanisms and opportunities to facilitate meaningful dialogue, and by well-structured organisations in civil society, the business sector and the relevant government level.

Weak institutions

Strong institutions