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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.