The New Climate Economy (NCE) is the Commission’s flagship project. The project is being undertaken by a global partnership of research institutes and supported by an Advisory Panel of world-leading economists, chaired by Lord Nicholas Stern. The project has been set up to provide independent and authoritative evidence on the relationship between actions which can strengthen economic performance and those which reduce the risk of dangerous climate change, and to influence global debate about the future of economic growth and climate action.
The NCE Cities research studies and the NCE report, ‘’ is available to download. The report recommends that in order to create better growth and a safer climate, action should focus on three key economic systems: Cities, Land Use and Energy; and three drivers of change: Resource Efficiency, Infrastructure Investment and Innovation.
The NCE Cities research programme
ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Cities lead the NCE research programme on cities. Other key institutions involved in the cities programme included the World Resources Institute (US), the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (India), Stockholm Environment Institute (Sweden) and Tsinghua University (China). The cities research programme for NCE was led by Graham Floater and Philipp Rode.
The cities research assembled the evidence base on the economic opportunities, risks and barriers to cities in taking climate action. This was used to shape the findings and recommendations of the Global Commission.
The research programme was designed to be grounded in the priorities of economic decision makers. It therefore focused on how cities can achieve core economic objectives in the context of increased climate risk.
The project’s starting point was to engage directly with the goals and perspectives of key decision-makers: finance and economic ministries at the national level, city mayors and those who take major investment decisions in and around cities. The research aimed to take a rigorously objective and evidence-based approach, independently assessing the evidence from all sides of the debate.