The economic and public health benefits of urban climate policies

“Opportunity 2030: More Jobs, Better Health, Liveable Cities – Quantifying the benefits of climate change mitigation measures in buildings transport and energy supply” is a new report that analyses how the impacts of climate action through climate policies can not only lead to the reduction of emissions but also can affect health and prosperity in selected global regions.

In order for cities to deliver on their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement, large-scale urban climate action across sectors is considered necessary. In this context, the current report provides evidence on how climate policies are interrelated with public health, economic prosperity and other development agendas. The research was a collaborative work between NewClimate Institute, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM).

The report focuses on two scenarios:

1. A reference scenario that projects urban developments based on current trends, and
2. An enhanced action scenario that assumes that each climate action is implemented at a level consistent with the requirements of the Paris Agreement.

Key Messages

Some key messages of the report as presented in the report:

•  Climate policies on building retrofits, bus networks and district energy and cooling can generate millions of jobs, save households billions of dollars, and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths related to urban pollution all over the world.
• The report helps policymakers establish the case for climate action by providing evidence on how climate measures are interrelated with, and support, other
  urban policy goals.
• Climate Opportunity shows that mitigating climate change through ambitious policies can help cities achieve their broader social and economic agendas and deliver outcomes for health and prosperity.
• By using Climate Opportunity’ s methodology and tools, policymakers can investigate further linkages between ambitious climate measures and their social and economic priorities

Interactive online dashboard

The results from the Climate Opportunity Report are presented in an interactive dashboard where users can explore and compare the findings between regions and define a specific city to visualise indicative results at this level. The dashboard is available at
www.globalcovenantofmayors.org/climateopportunity

• Download the whole report here.