Incentives that Undermine Climate-friendly Smart City

Whether they are premeditated or unintentional by the policy makers, in the process of land use and development control, there may be regulation or procedure that deter sustainable urban development. UN Habitat listed some of the most common in zoning law and urban management practice that incentivise the unsustainable city development. 

These includes land and property tax exemptions that favour greenfield development, fossil fuel subsidies that encourage urban sprawl and private car use, new development outside population concentration area, development outside urban growth boundary, subsidised infrastructure to sprawling and low-density developments, subsidies to particular types of transport infrastructures, subsidies that direct jobs & industry away from cities’ core areas, and subsidised costs of providing public services. 

There are also non-economic incentives that are prominent in urban planning such as provision of free/off-street parking space through minimum parking which often lead to the creation of excess, poorly distributed and under-used parking facilities. It is advised that urban planners continuously re-examined their existing planning tools that may enables city development that are deteriorating the environmental quality and impede resilience to climate-related disaster. 

Reference:

Urban Planning Law for Climate Smart Cities: The Urban Law Module of the Law and Climate Change Toolkit by UN Habitat

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