What's the issue?

Preparing regions and cities for the circular economy and for the goal of net zero carbon emissions will require large amounts of investment in innovation, the large-scale deployment of innovative solutions, infrastructure and the habitat alike. Regions and cities already play a particularly large role in this context: more than half of environmental and climate-related spending, and roughly two-thirds of environmental and climate-related investment comes from subnational governments (OECD, 2019). However, overall spending levels are still way below what will be required. Significant increases in public and private sector resources are needed for successful environmental and energy transitions, particularly as the share of environmental and climate-related spending and investment is very low relative to GDP in OECD countries (ibid). 

In addition to sufficient financing, the transition requires many new solutions that often go beyond technological innovation and include social innovation, new business models, behavioural changes and new governance approaches. At the same time, transition requires stakeholder engagement at all levels of government: we need local solutions to the global challenges. These are best generated with governance that engages all actors, including the private sector, empowers them and creates ownership. 

Financing climate objectives in cities and regions to deliver sustainable and inclusive growth (OECD, 2019); doi: https://doi.org/10.1787/ee3ce00b-en

Why attend?

This is the last seminar in a five-part seminar series in the context of the OECD-EC project “Managing Environmental and Energy Transitions for Regions and Cities”. Previous seminars include: “Managing the transition to a climate-neutral economy”, “Managing Environmental and Energy Transitions in Cities”, “Managing the Transition to the Circular Economy” and “Managing Environmental and Energy Transitions in Rural Areas”. 

The outcome of the seminars will feed into the work of the European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and will be summarised in an OECD publication to inform regional policy makers about current frontier thinking and corresponding policy approaches in managing the environmental and energy transitions