Better Growth, Better Cities: Rethinking and Redirecting Urbanization in Africa

President Felipe Calderón, Chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate:

There’s ample evidence that renewable energy and energy efficiency are booming sectors for business, writes Naina Lal Kidwai in the Financial Times.

The climate crisis does not begin or stop with Africa, but African countries can play a leadership role in seizing the opportunities of a better future. The world's larger economies have a responsibility to unlock this future, for themselves and for others, writes Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

A new climate economy

Felipe Calderon applauded the launch of the Risky Business Report on the economic risks United States regions and businesses face from climate change.

India has an opportunity to improve the quality and quantity of economic growth, according the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. Research conducted for the Commission, led by former President of Mexico Felipe Calderón, highlights the enormous opportunities for India in developing renewable energy and improving urban development. However future growth, in both Indian cities, but also the agricultural sector, is at risk from climate change.

Technological innovation, new economic trends, and new political commitments are combining to build momentum for change. Here are 10 reasons why the low-carbon economy is an emerging reality.

Social media analytics show major positive conversation around climate action and economic growth, including most recently at COP21.

Most developed countries now pursue policies that implicitly or explicitly aim at promoting compact urban form.

We need a concerted and coordinated effort to simultaneously develop new solutions and technologies in the shipping industry, writes Felipe Calderón.

We are no doubt living in challenging times, with cities so often the focal point of social tensions that are felt well beyond their limits. But cities also offer us so many solutions. For the good of their entire countries today and tomorrow, we need national leaders to seize the new urban opportunity, writes Nick Stern.

Heads of State and Ministers from seven countries launched the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate in New York City today, just before the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. At a packed meeting, the invited guests and media heard presentations from the governments of the countries which have commissioned the project, and a lively discussion session with some of the project's leading figures.

Felipe Calderon delivered a speech at the New Climate Economy Dinner hosted by the Foreign and Environment Ministers of Sweden. He explained how in the next few years, decisions regarding removing fossil fuels, pricing carbon, redesigning future cities, and stopping deforestation must to be taken in order not only to prevent a dangerous rise in temperatures but also to reinvigorate economic growth.

Ethiopia can harness urbanisation to secure high and sustainable economic growth and to achieve middle-income country status by 2025, says a new study by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, the Ethiopian Development Research Institute, and the Global Green Growth Institute.