Climate-smart cities could save us $22tn, reports international climate change initiative
Encouraging the development of climate-smart cities that incorporate expanded public transport, energy-saving buildings, and better waste management would spur economic growth and enable a better quality of life—at the same time as cutting carbon pollution and saving up to $22tn—according to a recent report by The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.
With an estimated two-thirds of the world’s population likely to live in urban areas by 2050, the report suggests that the right choices now, for example, in terms of long-term planning for urban development and transport, could improve people’s lives and fight climate change.
As governments of over 190 nations prepare to gather in Paris later this year to discuss a possible new global agreement on climate change—current commitments on greenhouse gas emissions run out in 2020—the issue is obviously high on the political agenda.
Olivier Deschenes has written about the effects of environmental regulations on labor markets for IZA World of Labor. He advises that policymakers considering new or stricter environmental regulations should include programs for job training, labor market reintegration, and income support for displaced workers. He recommends the “[promotion of] scientific research on the effect of environmental regulations on workers and firms,” so that policy decisions can be based on“credible empirical evidence.”
Nico Pestel has studied the effects that green policies can have on employment in the energy sector, noting that both supporters and opponents put forward employment effects as arguments for or against such policies. Pestel concludes that as existing studies only reveal moderate effects, neither job creation nor job destruction are in fact adequate arguments to put forward in the energy policy debate. “At the end of the day, green energy policies should be judged on whether they are able to reduce the emission of ambient air pollutants while securing a reliable supply of energy...”
Read more in the Guardian.
The New Climate Economy report can be read in full here.
Related articles:
Environmental regulations and labor markets, by Olivier Deschenes