Transcript The multi-level polity

Greening the Realm –
cities and regions as laboratories of
innovation and sustainable development
Kevin Morgan
School of City and Regional Planning
Cardiff University
GIN2008 Conference, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
26-28 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:
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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:
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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:
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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
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The models of innovation that have dominated the literature in
the past 20 years include: the linear model, interactive model
and open model
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We are now witnessing the advent of a radically different kind
of innovation model – the Sustainable Innovation Paradigm
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Unlike earlier models, the SIP involves a new mix of economy,
civil society and the multi-level polity
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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
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Firms may drive innovation but they do so in the context of their
milieux (territorial and relational)
Today’s experimental spaces include:
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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
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The procurement paradox – enormous power that is largely
untapped by national and sub-national public bodies
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Public procurement spending in the EU:
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1500 billion euro
16% of GDP
65% managed by sub-national public bodies
Barriers to green procurement include:
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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
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Public procurement of food - can deliver a triple dividend of
health, environmental and economic gains
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Uniform EU regulations, but big national differences
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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:
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Whole life costing
Creative procurement skills
Political leadership
City-region strategies for sustainable food chains
Good practice is a bad traveller
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Innovations do not diffuse as quickly/easily between firms as
conventional economic theory would suggest
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Public sector innovations are even more sluggish to diffuse
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New networks of innovation diffusion are urgently needed:
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Territorially – within & between cities and regions
Professionally – within & between professional associations
Corporately – within and between supply chains
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Cities and regions have a major role to play in animating and diffusing
the SIP to create a post-carbon society
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But all levels of the multi-level polity need to be mobilised to make
good practice the norm not the exception