Competitive cities and climate change
OECD regional development working papers n° 2:
This publication reports on a conference which aimed at engaging a wide range of stakeholders, including city, regional and central government representatives, in considering a broader and holistic approach to climate change policies at the urban level. It discusses strategies for cities to adapt to potential climate change impacts, including reducing vulnerability to flooding, sea level rise and extreme weather events.
Section 1 analyzes the relationship between cities and climate change. Section 2 discusses climate impacts specific to urban areas, and asserts that adapting to climate change impacts requires significant public investments to address expected increases in flooding, storms, heat extremes, drought and water scarcity. The benefit of implementing urban policies to tackle climate change is demonstrated in Section 3. Section 4 will review policy tools to address climate change at the local level such as land-use zoning, natural resources, transportation, building, waste and water policies. Section 5 discusses the different forms of upward pressures on city budgets that can be anticipated to respond to climate change issues. And Section 6 discusses the role of cities in contributing to a new global Green Growth model at a time when governments must reduce their carbon footprint while steering the world economy out of an economic crisis.
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