'Better Growth, Better Climate'—Guidance For Resource-Efficient Economic Development

The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate is a major new international initiative to provide independent and authoritative evidence on actions which can strengthen economic performance and reduce climate change risks. It is a coalition of major international organizations, guided by some of the world's leading economists and research organizations. 

Today the Commission released a report, Better Growth, Better Climate which sets out a ten point Global Action Plan for governments and businesses to secure economic development in a low-carbon economy. This report is based on research conducted by a global partnership of eight leading research institutes: World Resources Institute (WRI, Managing Partner), Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI), Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), LSE Cities, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and Tsinghua University.

Chapter 2 explores the roles that resource-efficient cities can play in achieving these goals. Building more productive cities can boost economic prosperity and help tackle climate change. The Commission used a database of the world’s largest cities to identify those that are particularly important in terms of impacts on the global economy and climate out to 2030. The analysis shows these 468 cities will account for over 60 percent of global income growth between 2012 and 2030, and with business-as-usual development patterns they will account for 45 percent of global energy-related emissions. Actions that increase resource efficiency in these cities can be particularly effective at achieving global economy and climate goals.