Greening the Realm – cities and regions as laboratories of innovation and sustainable development

Kevin MorganSchool of City and Regional PlanningCardiff University

GIN2008 Conference, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands26-28 June, 2008

Overview

Governance and the multi-level polity

Models of Innovation

Cities & regions as experimental spaces

Green procurement: the power of purchase

Good practice is a bad traveller

The multi-level polity

The EU is the world’s most complex multi-level polity - supra-national, national and sub-national realms

A big political disconnect here between: policy design (supra-national/national) and policy delivery (sub-national)

The sub-national realm has little status, but manages and implements some 80% of all EU programmes

Subsidiarity is important for more effective governance (not just for more accountable governance)

The multi-level polity

Barriers to subsidiarity operate at the top and the bottom of the multi-level polity: Control – the upper levels are reluctant to devolve power Competence – the lower levels lack knowledge and skills Conflict – upper and lower levels in conflict

These problems not confined to the EU: The US – the green battles between the Feds and the States

(eg clean air standards in California) China - the centre cannot get local states to implement its

environmental laws

Models of Innovation

The models of innovation that have dominated the literature in the past 20 years include: the linear model, interactive model and open model

We are now witnessing the advent of a radically different kind of innovation model – the Sustainable Innovation Paradigm

Unlike earlier models, the SIP involves a new mix of economy, civil society and the multi-level polity

Key sectors of a low carbon society - energy, transport, building materials, food, waste - require the active cooperation of consumers and citizens to effect behavioural change

Cities and regions as experimental spaces

Firms may drive innovation but they do so in the context of their milieux (territorial and relational)

Today’s experimental spaces include: Austin, Texas – new solar energy cluster New Haven, West Virginia – carbon capture and storage trial California – clean technology across the board Marburg, Germany – renewable energy London, England – congestion charge Belo Horizonte, Brazil – urban food security Henan Province, China – peasant-owned joint stock companies Dongtan, China – eco-city design Rome – sustainable school food system Helsinki – green procurement of buses

Green procurement: the power of purchase

The procurement paradox – enormous power that is largely untapped by national and sub-national public bodies

Public procurement spending in the EU: 1500 billion euro 16% of GDP 65% managed by sub-national public bodies

Barriers to green procurement include: Cost – perception of increased cost Knowledge – lack of know-how Risk aversion – cultivated by the legal profession Legal issues – ambiguity about EU regulations Leadership – conspicuous by its absence

Green procurement: the case of food

Public procurement of food - can deliver a triple dividend of health, environmental and economic gains

Uniform EU regulations, but big national differences Italy – local food procurement in all but name UK – believed local food procurement was impossible Explanation – culture and politics = different interpretations

Key issues for greening procurement: Whole life costing Creative procurement skills Political leadership City-region strategies for sustainable food chains

Good practice is a bad traveller

Innovations do not diffuse as quickly/easily between firms as conventional economic theory would suggest

Public sector innovations are even more sluggish to diffuse

New networks of innovation diffusion are urgently needed: Territorially – within & between cities and regions Professionally – within & between professional associations Corporately – within and between supply chains

Cities and regions have a major role to play in animating and diffusing the SIP to create a post-carbon society

But all levels of the multi-level polity need to be mobilised to make good practice the norm not the exception