The Urban Policy Package

While the international community has been struggling to agree on climate change targets and co-ordinated approaches to fight global warming, and many national governments have begun to act, a growing number of cities and regions have also taken initiatives to reduce their energy use and GHG emissions and to begin to adapt to climate change. Cities and regions in many OECD countries have key responsibilities in the urban sectors that can provide valuable strategies for fighting and adapting to climate change, including policies that affect transportation and the built environment. With the help of strategic planning tools, policies at the local level can establish complementary policy packages that bring together territorial strategies and sectoral policies. Chapter 4 reviews policy tools to address climate change at the local level in the sectors of land-use zoning, natural resources, transportation, building, waste and water. The question of effective urban policy packages intersects with the concept of urban spatial density, a major driver of CO2 and N2O emissions. This chapter also assesses different characteristics of urban densification policies and their effectiveness in meeting environmental goals whilst ensuring that cities remain attractive in the long term.