Professor Paul Ekins - Green Infrastructure for a Green Economy - Presentation at The Sustainable Green Infrastructure Conference 2014 - To see the video of the presentation please go to http://www.GreenSocialEngineering.org/members. Professor Paul Ekins has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of London and is Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy and Director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London. He also has extensive experience consulting for business, government and international organisations, and has been a regular contributor to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales' course for senior executives on business and the environment, now continuing with involvement with the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, at the University of Cambridge. Paul Ekins’ academic work focuses on the conditions and policies for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy; in 2012- 14 he was the Chair of the UCL Green Economy Policy Commission, which published its report, Greening the Recovery, in February 2014. He is the author of numerous papers, book-chapters and articles in a wide range of journals, and has written or edited twelve books, including Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: the Prospects for Green Growth (Routledge, London, 2000); the Transition to a Secure, Low-Carbon Energy System for the UK (Earthscan, London, 2011); Environmental Tax Reform: A Policy for Green Growth (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011); and Global Energy: Issues, Potentials and Policy Implications (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014 forthcoming). In 1994 Paul Ekins received a Global 500 Award ‘for outstanding environmental achievement’ from the United Nations Environment Programme.

1. GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A
GREEN ECONOMY
A Presentation to the Sustainable Green Infrastructure
Conference
Paul Ekins
Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy
Director, UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources
Chair, UCL Green Economy Policy Commission
University College London
British Library October 23rd, 2014

2. Insights from two reports
• Greening the Recovery: the report of the UCL
Green Economy Policy Commission, UCL,
February 2014
– Analysis of macro-factors needed for a more
sustainable national economy
• The Urban Environment, Royal Commission on
Environmental Pollution, March 2007
– Focus on the built environment
• Green infrastructure is a critical component in
both reports
UCL Public Policy

3. The purpose and prize of a green economy
• Climate stability: the challenge of limiting global
temperature increases
• Resource security: 9 billion people, 3 billion
new middle class consumers, the ‘nexus’ of food,
water, energy (and biodiversity), plus ‘critical’ raw
materials
• Environmental quality: air, water, landscape,
ecosystems
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4. Characteristics of a green economy
• Very low levels of carbon and other emissions to the
atmosphere, and does not pollute the land, freshwater or
seas.
• Very high levels of resource productivity: high levels of
human value, measured in money or other terms, for low
throughput of energy and material resources.
• Aggregate human activity remains within local and
planetary environmental limits, such that it does not
damage human health, deplete renewable resources, or
cause climate change or ecosystem degradation
• Intersects with two important high-level public policy
agendas – those on environmental sustainability and
‘human well-being’ or ‘Beyond GDP’.
UCL Public Policy

5. Opportunity for a green economy
• Greening of the whole economy, not focusing only on core ‘green’
sectors
• As countries move into recovery, there is an opportunity to accelerate
and direct that recovery, and future economic growth, towards a
greener economy.
• Economic growth resulting from this process – ‘green growth’ – will be
sustainable, unlike ‘brown growth’, which will be increasingly
undermined by climate and resource disruptions and instabilities
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6. Foundations and pillars of a green economy
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7. Messages relating to infrastructure
• Built infrastructure (energy, water, transport,
waste, buildings, ICT) is critical for promoting a
greener economy
• Three kinds of ‘green infrastructure’:
– Infrastructure that avoids lock-in to high-carbon or
otherwise destructive lifestyles, and actually promotes
economic and behaviour change that contributes to a
greener economy
– Urban infrastructure that contributes to ecologically
sound management of urban resources and wastes
– Urban green space that performs environmental
functions (the natural built environment)
UCL Public Policy

8. Avoiding lock-in, promoting change
UCL Public Policy
• Prioritisation of infrastructure, need for choices (not all
infrastructure is green)
• Government should adopt a clearer approach to prioritisation of
key infrastructure projects, and ensure that infrastructure
investments are compatible with long-term green economy
objectives.
– Going beyond the undifferentiated infrastructure list in the UK
Infrastructure Plan, the Government needs to identify what green
infrastructure investments are required and prioritise these
accordingly in order to ensure policy clarity and credibility.
– Consider establishment of traffic light categorisation based on life
cycle sustainability assessment of infrastructure construction and use
– Establish new financial institutions to promote appropriate investment
in infrastructure (e.g. Green Investment Bank for specialist green
investment; National Infrastructure Bank for wider infrastructure
investment according to green criteria)
– Establish right balance between national and local infrastructure and
land-use planning

9. Urban infrastructure for sound ecological
management
UCL Public Policy
Integrated approach to:
• Transport (e.g. infrastructure for walking, cycling and
public transport)
• Energy (e.g. electricity and heat distribution networks for
local power generation and low-carbon heating)
• Water and sewerage (e.g. sustainable urban drainage
systems (SUDS), green roofs)
• Waste Management (material, biomass and energy
recovery, re-use and recycling facilities)
• Urban design for nature in the built environment – green
space

10. The Natural Urban Environment
• Natural urban environment has a key influence on health and wellbeing,
with well attested evidence of benefits in terms of:
– Physical health (air pollution, urban heat island/heat stress,
exercise, children’s play space)
– Mental health, consequent on facilities for relaxation and improved
physical health
– Water management
• The natural urban environment can provide essential ecosystem
services and enhanced biodiversity through river restoration, tree
planting, some brownfield preservation (e.g. gardens)
• Need a broader understanding of special character and value in order to
provide enhancement and protection

11. Social and community benefits
• River restoration to provide access to and
recreation along our urban waterways
• Create and maintain green spaces that provide for
recreation, exercise, amenity, local food
(allotments)
• Protect properties from flooding – through
integrated drainage and avoidance of high risk
areas
• But will have to plan improvements to the natural
environment in an integrated way

12. An Environmental Contract
• Between Central +
Local Government
• Forging partnerships
with the wider
community
• Delivered through
existing plans +
structures.
• Covers whole range
of environmental
issues

13. Conclusions
UCL Public Policy
Successful policy for a green economy will:
• Strengthen the UK economy by renewing infrastructure,
stimulating innovation and increasing resource productivity
• Build UK comparative advantage, capability and exports in
growing global markets;
• Improve the daily environmental experience and quality of
life of UK citizens;
• Give the UK a leading voice in global political discourse on
increasingly important resource and environment issues.
BUT
• The renewed infrastructure will need to be green
• Green infrastructure in urban areas has an essential role to
play

14. Thank you
www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/sustainable
www.ucl.ac.uk/public-policy