2016 Green Growth and Sustainable Development (GGSD) Forum on the theme “Urban green growth, land use and spatial planning” 

 

When: 9-10 November 2016

Where: OECD Conference Centre, Paris, France

Day 1

• Opening Session with the OECD Secretary-General and other keynote speakers
• Session 1: Do existing land use policies support green growth?

Day 2

• Session 2: Urban sprawl: A remaining challenge 
  • Session 3: How do cities meet “green growth challenges”? Innovative policies

Parallel Sessions

• A:  Resilient infrastructure: Innovative approaches (Joint with the World Bank)
• B:  Tracking progress on urban green growth & Sustainable Development Goals:

Data, information and indicators

• C:  Towards win-win solutions for “inclusive” and “green” cities
               (Joint with the Inclusive Cities Campaign)
• D:  The Impact of tax policies on land use outcomes

Please find attached the latest draft Agenda.

TO REGISTER: please click here.   Do share this with your colleagues.

Practical information on nearby hotels etc. may be found here.

We hope to see you at the Forum in November.

Best regards, Kumi Kitamori

Head of Division, ENV Green Growth and Global Relations

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Green Growth and Sustainable Development Forum 2016

DRAFT AGENDA

Urban green growth, spatial planning and land-use

OECD Conference Centre, 9-10 November 2016

Policy coherence between spatial and land-use planning and environment policy is an area of increasing focus for governments. Many land-use and spatial planning interventions fail to properly account for environmental consequences, such as those related to urban sprawl, transport systems and flood-zone development.

This Forum addresses “Urban green growth, land use and spatial planning”. It examines environment and economic implications of different land use and spatial planning policies and explores how innovative approaches to land-use regulation and environmental policy instruments could complement and impact on traditional land-use planning and current approaches to green growth at the national and sub-national levels. Spatially conflicting uses cut across policies as various as coastal management, housing, agriculture, infrastructure, transport, energy and access to social services.

The Forum is supported by two commissioned Issues Papers, one on land use and green growth and another on spatial planning policies for resilience to environmental hazards.  The Forum also draws on work of the Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC) and its Working Parties on Urban and Rural Policy, Environment Policy Committee (EPOC) and its Working Party on Integrating Environmental and Economic Policies (WPIEEP), Committee on Fiscal Affairs and its Joint Meeting of Tax and Environment Experts (JMTEE), Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and its Network on Environment and Development Co-operation (ENVIRONET). In particular the Forum benefits from projects under these OECD Committees from 2015-2016 on: the effectiveness of land-use and spatial-planning instruments in achieving environmental and economic objectives; the effects of environmentally related taxes on land use and environmental outcomes; development of an analytical framework for assessing policies for green growth in fast-growing cities in Asia; and policies to improve urban air quality.

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

Day 1 – Wednesday, 9 November 2016

14.00-15.30Scene Setting Session:

Opening Remarks:  Mr. Angel Gurría, Secretary General, OECD

 

Keynote Speakers:

• , Deputy Mayor of Paris, France (Invited)
• , Mayor of Warsaw (Invited)

 

 

OECD perspective:  

• , Chief Economist, Economics Department
• Director/Deputy Director, Public Governance & Territorial Development, OECD

Key Policy Questions:

1. What are roles of cities in fostering Green Growth? 
2. What opportunities and challenges do urban development processes offer?
3. Are existing land-use patterns, economic development and Green Growth in balance? 

 

16.00-18.00 Session 1:  Do existing land use policies support green growth?

Joint session with the OECD Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC)

Moderator:  Mr. Paul LeBlanc, President of Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and Chair of OECD

                       Regional Development Policy Committee (Canada)

Land use policies are an important part of the policy mix as they are a key tool to further economic, environmental and social goals. Land use policies are also a prime example of a policy field where cooperation between the local, regional and national level is crucial for achieving desired outcomes. Based on OECD work, this session discusses the policies needed with respect to land use and spatial planning at the local, regional and national levels to achieve sustainable and fair economic growth.

 

Keynote Speakers:

• Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Minister of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU), Mexico (TBC)

 

Panellists:

• ISOCARP, Director, ARUP, People's Republic of China
• , Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Georgia (TBD)
• , Mayor of Freiburg, Germany (Invited)
• , Director of Planning Administration, Israel (Invited)
• , Mayor of Prague, Czech Republic (Invited)
• , Mayor of Nantes, France (Invited)

Key Policy Questions:

1. In the framework of current regimes of land use governance and spatial planning, how can cities and regions contribute to fostering Green and Inclusive Growth?
2. What can national governments do with respect to land use governance, land use regulations and land-use relevant fiscal and tax policies in order to enable cities and regions to achieve desired outcomes for people’s wellbeing?
3. How to prevent trade-offs and create positive synergies from land use policies when it comes to economic efficiency, environmental sustainability, and social inclusion?
4. What can we learn from the experiences of the case study cities/countries represented in the session?

 

Day 2 – Thursday, 10 November 2016

9.30 - 11.00 Session2: Urban sprawl: A remaining challenge  

Moderator: Mr. Ed Hearnshaw, Senior Policy Analyst, New Zealand Ministry of Environment;                                   Delegate to the OECD Working Party on Integrating Environmental and Economic Policies

Planning traditions, systems and models vary across countries. There may not be a unique land-use policy model that suits every country region or city. However with increasing environmental concerns associated with land-use (e.g. consequences of sprawl) it would be prudent for governments at all levels to re-examine their spatial planning systems and make the necessary policy reforms to harmonise economic development and environmental protection. Urban sprawl is a serious concern for many governments. Empirical work shows that ‘effective’ land use policies can take many different forms. In 2015-2016 OECD’s work focussed on the evaluation of the effectiveness of spatial planning instruments in achieving environmental and economic objectives.  The project on Spatial Planning Instruments and the Environment (SPINE) relies on the refined geospatial and environmental data and state-of-the-art analytical and empirical methods to shed light on the effects of land-use patterns and spatial planning instruments on economic development, social cohesion, public finance and the environment. This session is informed by work conducted under the Working Party on Integrating Environmental and Economic Policies (WPIEEP).

Keynote Presentations:

• , Economics, University of California, United States
• , Coordinator, Urban sprawl in EuropeJoint EEA-FOEN report 2016; Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Zurich, Switzerland (Invited)

Panellists:

• Delegate general, Economic Council for Sustainable Development, Ministry of Environment, Energy and the Sea, France
  • , Environmental & urban economist, Ohio State University, United States
  • Associate Professor, Université Saint-Etienne, France

Key Policy Questions:

1. What are the causes of urban sprawl in OECD countries and what are their implications for green growth?
2. What are the effects of anti-sprawl policies on the economy, the environment and social inclusion?
3. How can transport policies complement spatial planning instruments in curbing urban sprawl and its environmental and economic consequences?
4. How can breakthrough transport technologies and transformative business models affect urban sprawl patterns and their consequences in the near future?

11.30 -13.00 Session 3:

How do cities meet “green growth challenges”? Innovative policy approaches

Moderator: Dr Vincent Fouchier, Director of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolitan area planning project; Chair of the OECD Working Party on Urban Policy (WPURB)

Cities play an important role as ‘game changers’ in several contexts in the 21^st century. Urban issues are increasingly prominent on national and global policy agendas, from Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, in Quito, Ecuador, 17–20 October 2016.  Cities and metropolitan areas are major contributors to national economies and play a key role as nodes in global markets. It is not always clear what the most effective policy approaches are to create impacts on advancing green growth.

This session focuses mainly on the municipal level where many experiments have started to make cities the catalyst of change. Innovative approaches at the city level could include: productive urban economy; urban food and agriculture; shared economy and smart city/digital technologies. Diversity in policy strategies for green growth according to the urban policy context in different cities and regions needs to be recognised. Similarities in green growth opportunities and challenges imply the importance of knowledge sharing and cooperation among cities. 

Speakers:

• · Khalifa Ababacar Sall, Mayor of Dakar (Senegal), Chairman of United Cities and Local Governments of Africa
• · Ridwan Kamil, Mayor of Bandung, Indonesia  (Invited)
• · Tanya Müller García, Environment Minister, City of Mexico (Invited)
• ·Datuk Ismail Ibrahim, Chief Executive, Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), Malaysia
• ·, Ambassador for International Relations, Seoul Metropolitan Government
• ·, IEFE Università Bocconi, Green Economy Observatory, Milano, Italy (Invited)
• · Springer, Director, Department for Sustainable Development, Organization of American States, United States (Invited)
• ·, Associate Director, Cities and Economics, BuroHappold Engineering, United Kingdom (Invited)

 

Key Policy Questions   

1. What can we learn from innovative policy approaches by cities and can best practices be applied elsewhere?
2. How can cities and other levels of government work together to foster green growth within the context of 2030 Agenda/SDGs implementation and Habitat lll?
3. How can cities’ urban green growth actions be financed?
4. What is role for public procurement for green growth?
5. What is the role of the private sectors / citizen’s engagement in urban green growth?

 

 

14.30- 16.00 Parallel Sessions

 

A.  Resilient infrastructure: Innovative approaches (Joint with the World Bank)   Urban infrastructure is under significant pressure in the face of increasing population density, climate change, and economic growth. As countries aspire to invest in efficient cities, roads, housing, education and health systems need to promote green growth. Acting early is essential to ensure resilience and avoid locking into long-lasting and unsustainable urban forms. This session considers the environmental and economic challenges of infrastructure development given the increasing uncertainty and risks related to its development. It explores opportunities for innovation in ensuring the resilience and sustainability of urban forms. The session is jointly organized with the World Bank to align with their hosting of the 2017 Green Growth Knowledge Platform Annual Conference on resilient infrastructure.   Moderator: Dr. Marianne Fay, Chief Economist, Sustainable Development Vice Presidency, World Bank , Senior Economist, Climate Change Group, World Bank (TBD) , Policy Analyst, Environment Directorate, OECD  Head of Statistics & Modelling, International Transport Forum

 

B.  Tracking progress on urban green growth and Sustainable Development Goals: Data, information and indicators   While policies to promote urban green growth have been implemented in many cities, the effective measurement of the policy impacts and the tracking of progress remains a challenge. While the OECD has developed a set of green growth indicators, there have been relatively few attempts to apply them to the subnational level. This session considers what needs to be measured - given the cross-sectoral nature of urban green growth – and discusses the challenge of comparability. It also considers how measurement efforts can be aligned with the broader international agenda including the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda.   Moderator: Mr. Shardul Agrawala, Head of Division, Environment Directorate, OECD , Executive Chairman, The Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability (Invited) , Environmental Science & Ecological Engineering, Korea University (Invited) , Public Governance & Territorial Development, OECD (TBD) , Senior Economist, Environment Directorate, OECD (TBD)

 

C.  Towards win-win solutions for “inclusive” and “green” cities Rising inequalities, poor quality of services, fragmented labour markets, and non-inclusive institutions challenge the capacity of cities to grow inclusively. The integration of economy-wide and local policy measures are needed in order to build cities that are both inclusive and environmentally sustainable. To increase awareness of rising inequalities and refocus the debate on concrete solutions, the OECD launched the Inclusive Growth in Cities Campaign. This session shares best practices on advancing inclusive growth goals such as affordable housing, transport accessibility, and expanding education and job opportunities could be combined with the goals of green and low-carbon growth. It also contributes to the ongoing discussion following the launch of the campaign in March 2016 and in advance of the next major event to be held in Paris on 21 November.   Moderator: Ms. Lamia Kamal-Chaoui,Senior Advisor to the OECD Secretary-General; Coordinator of the OECD’s Inclusive Growth Initiative , Executive Director, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (TBD) , Mayor of Dakar (TBC)

 

D.  The Impact of tax policies on land use outcomes   The taxation of income, property, transport and energy at all government levels can have a significant impact on land-use, real-estate development, urban sprawl and therefore environmental performance (air pollution and GHG emissions). Property taxes can be designed to encourage the development of denser cities, or promote single-occupancy housing. Subnational-specific income tax rates may affect land use patterns. Tax provisions that favour home ownership may also impact city shape and mobility. Parking fees and taxes on urban road use may affect accessibility and improve air-quality.  As a result, careful consideration is required in the development and implementation of tax policies. This session discusses the implications of a wide-range of taxation policies at all government levels and the role in shaping urban green growth. It also considers the role that taxation can play in providing revenues for green urban investments, as well as other more general issues related to financing.      Moderator: Mr. David Bradbury/Mr. Kurt van Dender,Centre for Tax Policy and Admin, OECD , Vrije University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Invited) , Senior Economist, Swiss Federal Tax Administrati , Economist, Environment Directorate, OECD

16:30 – 17:30  Reporting Back From Parallel Sessions and Closing Remarks

Moderator: Dr. Simon Upton, Director, Environment Directorate, OECD

Reporting Back From Parallel Sessions: Moderators from Breakout Sessions A, B, C & D.

OECD Response and Next Steps

• , Director, Public Governance & Territorial Development, OECD

Closing Remarks

• , Deputy Secretary-General, OECD.