
The debate on growth versus environment at the urban scale
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
The debate on growth versus environment at the urban scale
The Limits to Growth—Club of Rome (Universe, 1972). Understanding different perspectives on economic growth and climate policy. Global urban structural growth shows a profound shift from spreading out to building up. Building up or spreading out? Typologies of urban growth across 478 cities of 478 million+. Environ. Res. Lett. 14, 124077 (2019). The Weight of The City: The Future of Urbanization in Urbanization (Springer Nature, 2018). The Urbanization of the Future: The New Economic Geography of Cities (Oxford Economics, 2024) The Urbanizing degrowth agenda for planning in the face of climate emergency: five steps towards a radical spatial deg growth agenda. The Global Cities Index: A global synthesis of urban land expansion, density, and land transitions from 1970 to 2010: a global synthesis. The City’s Future: A new economic geography of the future: The future of urbanization in urbanization. The Future Of Urbanization: The Weight Of The City.
Jakob, M., Lamb, W. F., Steckel, J. C., Flachsland, C. & Edenhofer, O. Understanding different perspectives on economic growth and climate policy. WIREs Clim. Change 11, e677 (2020).
Smulders, S., Toman, M. & Withagen, C. Growth theory and ‘green growth’. Oxf. Rev. Econ. Policy 30, 423–446 (2014).
Hickel, J. et al. Degrowth can work—here’s how science can help. Nature 612, 400–403 (2022).
van den Bergh, J. C. J. M. Environment versus growth—a criticism of “degrowth” and a plea for “a-growth”. Ecol. Econ. 70, 881–890 (2011).
Lwasa, S. et al. in Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change (eds Shukla, P. R. et al.) 861–952 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2022).
Seto, K. C. et al. in Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change (eds Edenhofer, O. et al.) 923–1001 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014).
LSE Cities. Old Cities New Ambitions: the Future of Urban Europe (LSE Cities, 2023).
Kaika, M., Varvarousis, A., Demaria, F. & March, H. Urbanizing degrowth: five steps towards a radical spatial degrowth agenda for planning in the face of climate emergency. Urban Stud. 60, 1191–1211 (2023).
Khmara, Y. & Kronenberg, J. Urban degrowth economics: making cities better places for living, working, and playing. Local Environ. 28, 304–321 (2023).
Savini, F. Towards an urban degrowth: habitability, finity and polycentric autonomism. Environ. Plan. Econ. Space 53, 1076–1095 (2021).
Alexander, S. & Gleeson, B. Degrowth in the Suburbs: a Radical Urban Imaginary (Springer Nature, 2019).
Wu, T., Yi, M. & Zhang, Y. Towards cities’ green growth: the combined influence of economic growth targets and environmental regulations. Cities 146, 104759 (2024).
Global Cities Index (Oxford Economics, 2024).
Balland, P.-A. et al. Complex economic activities concentrate in large cities. Nat. Hum. Behav. 4, 248–254 (2020).
Khmara, Y. & Kronenberg, J. On the road to urban degrowth economics? Learning from the experience of C40 cities, doughnut cities, Transition Towns, and shrinking cities. Cities 136, 104259 (2023).
Güneralp, B., Reba, M., Hales, B. U., Wentz, E. A. & Seto, K. C. Trends in urban land expansion, density, and land transitions from 1970 to 2010: a global synthesis. Environ. Res. Lett. 15, 044015 (2020).
Frolking, S., Mahtta, R., Milliman, T., Esch, T. & Seto, K. C. Global urban structural growth shows a profound shift from spreading out to building up. Nat. Cities 1, 555–566 (2024).
Mahtta, R., Mahendra, A. & Seto, K. C. Building up or spreading out? Typologies of urban growth across 478 cities of 1 million+. Environ. Res. Lett. 14, 124077 (2019).
Moran, D. et al. Carbon footprints of 13 000 cities. Environ. Res. Lett. 13, 064041 (2018).
Swilling, M. et al. The Weight of Cities: Resource Requirements of Future Urbanization (IRP, 2018).
Krugman, P. What’s new about the new economic geography? Oxf. Rev. Econ. Policy 14, 7–17 (1998).
Richardson, H. W. in Urban Agglomeration and Economic Growth (ed. Giersch, H.) 123–155 (Springer, 1995).
Grazi, F., van den Bergh, J. C. J. M. & Rietveld, P. Spatial welfare economics versus ecological footprint: modeling agglomeration, externalities and trade. Environ. Resour. Econ. 38, 135–153 (2007).
World Bank. World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography (World Bank, 2008).
Rosenthal, S. S. & Strange, W. C. in Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics Vol. 4 (eds. Henderson, J. V. & Thisse, J.-F.) 2119–2171 (Elsevier, 2004).
McCann, P. & Acs, Z. J. Globalization: countries, cities and multinationals. Reg. Stud. 45, 17–32 (2011).
Frick, S. A. & Rodríguez-Pose, A. Big or small cities? On city size and economic growth. Growth Change 49, 4–32 (2018).
Turner, M. & Weil, D. N. Are big cities important for economic growth? Preprint at SSRN https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=5083774 (2025).
Castells-Quintana, D. Malthus living in a slum: urban concentration, infrastructure and economic growth. J. Urban Econ. 98, 158–173 (2017).
Ganau, R. & Rodríguez-Pose, A. Does urban concentration matter for changes in country economic performance? Urban Stud. 59, 1275–1299 (2022).
Frick, S. A. & Rodríguez-Pose, A. Change in urban concentration and economic growth. World Dev. 105, 156–170 (2018).
Davis, J. C. & Henderson, J. V. Evidence on the political economy of the urbanization process. J. Urban Econ. 53, 98–125 (2003).
Neves, A., Godina, R., Azevedo, S. G. & Matias, J. C. O. A comprehensive review of industrial symbiosis. J. Clean. Prod. 247, 119113 (2020).
Mattioli, G., Morton, C. & Scheiner, J. Air travel and urbanity: the role of migration, social networks, airport accessibility, and ‘rebound’. Urban Plan. 6, 232–245 (2021).
Gifford, R. & Nilsson, A. Personal and social factors that influence pro-environmental concern and behaviour: a review. Int. J. Psychol. 49, 141–157 (2014).
Liotta, C., Viguié, V. & Creutzig, F. Environmental and welfare gains via urban transport policy portfolios across 120 cities. Nat. Sustain. 6, 1067–1076 (2023).
Jedwab, R., Loungani, P. & Yezer, A. Comparing cities in developed and developing countries: population, land area, building height and crowding. Reg. Sci. Urban Econ. 86, 103609 (2021).
Liu, Z. & Yu, L. Stay or leave? The role of air pollution in urban migration choices. Ecol. Econ. 177, 106780 (2020).
Kaczan, D. J. & Orgill-Meyer, J. The impact of climate change on migration: a synthesis of recent empirical insights. Clim. Change 158, 281–300 (2020).
Stern, D. I. The rise and fall of the environmental Kuznets curve. World Dev. 32, 1419–1439 (2004).
Haberl, H. et al. A systematic review of the evidence on decoupling of GDP, resource use and GHG emissions, part II: synthesizing the insights. Environ. Res. Lett. 15, 065003 (2020).
Hubacek, K., Chen, X., Feng, K., Wiedmann, T. & Shan, Y. Evidence of decoupling consumption-based CO 2 emissions from economic growth. Adv. Appl. Energy 4, 100074 (2021).
Jackson, T. & Victor, P. A. Unraveling the claims for (and against) green growth. Science 366, 950–951 (2019).
Chen, H., Zhang, X., Wu, R. & Cai, T. Revisiting the environmental Kuznets curve for city-level CO 2 emissions: based on corrected NPP-VIIRS nighttime light data in China. J. Clean. Prod. 268, 121575 (2020).
Shan, Y. et al. Chinese cities exhibit varying degrees of decoupling of economic growth and CO 2 emissions between 2005 and 2015. One Earth 4, 124–134 (2021).
Fujii, H., Iwata, K., Chapman, A., Kagawa, S. & Managi, S. An analysis of urban environmental Kuznets curve of CO 2 emissions: empirical analysis of 276 global metropolitan areas. Appl. Energy 228, 1561–1568 (2018).
Rizzati, M. C. P., Florenzio, N., Guastella, G. & Pareglio, S. Kuznets and the cities: urban level EKC evidence from Europe. Ecol. Indic. 148, 110143 (2023).
Wang, Z. & Ye, X. Re-examining environmental Kuznets curve for China’s city-level carbon dioxide emissions. Spat. Stat. 21, 377–389 (2017).
Kim, Y. & Lee, J. Unveiling urban spatial dynamics in climate and air quality indicators: a local estimation of the environmental Kuznets curve and the impact of green infrastructure. Ann. Reg. Sci. 74, 38 (2025).
Hao, Y. et al. How harmful is air pollution to economic development? New evidence from PM2.5 concentrations of Chinese cities. J. Clean. Prod. 172, 743–757 (2018).
Hammer, S., Kamal-Chaoui, L., Robert, A. & Plouin, M. Cities and Green Growth: a Conceptual Framework Vol. 2011/08 https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/cities-and-green-growth_5kg0tflmzx34-en (2011).
OECD. Urban Green Growth in Dynamic Asia (OECD, 2016).
Economics of Green Cities Programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Copenhagen Green Economy Leader Report (LSE Cities, 2014).
Krähmer, K. Are green cities sustainable? A degrowth critique of sustainable urban development in Copenhagen. Eur. Plan. Stud. 29, 1272–1289 (2021).
Martin, C. et al. Smart-sustainability: a new urban fix? Sustain. Cities Soc. 45, 640–648 (2019).
Xue, J. Is eco-village/urban village the future of a degrowth society? An urban planner’s perspective. Ecol. Econ. 105, 130–138 (2014).
Kronenberg, J. et al. Cities, planetary boundaries, and degrowth. Lancet Planet. Health 8, e234–e241 (2024).
Kallis, G. et al. Research on degrowth. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 43, 291–316 (2018).
Schindler, S., Kanai, J. M. & Diaz Bay, J. Deindustrialisation and the politics of subordinate degrowth: the case of Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina. Urban Stud. 60, 1212–1230 (2023).
Savini, F., Ferreira, A. & von Schönfeld, K. Post-Growth Planning: Cities Beyond the Market Economy (Routledge, 2022).
Miller, B. & Mössner, S. Urban sustainability and counter-sustainability: spatial contradictions and conflicts in policy and governance in the Freiburg and Calgary metropolitan regions. Urban Stud. 57, 2241–2262 (2020).
Feng, T., Du, H., Lin, Z. & Zuo, J. Spatial spillover effects of environmental regulations on air pollution: evidence from urban agglomerations in China. J. Environ. Manag. 272, 110998 (2020).
Rodríguez-Pose, A. & Bartalucci, F. The green transition and its potential territorial discontents. Camb. J. Reg. Econ. Soc. 17, 339–358 (2024).
Green, F. & Gambhir, A. Transitional assistance policies for just, equitable and smooth low-carbon transitions: who, what and how? Clim. Policy 20, 902–921 (2020).
van den Bergh, J. C. J. M. Systemic assessment of urban climate policies worldwide: decomposing effectiveness into 3 factors. Environ. Sci. Policy 114, 35–42 (2020).
Krähmer, K. Degrowth and the city. City 26, 316–345 (2022).
Ehnert, F. Review of research into urban experimentation in the fields of sustainability transitions and environmental governance. Eur. Plan. Stud. 31, 76–102 (2023).
Fuenfschilling, L., Frantzeskaki, N. & Coenen, L. Urban experimentation & sustainability transitions. Eur. Plan. Stud. 27, 219–228 (2019).
Hodson, M., Geels, F. W. & McMeekin, A. Reconfiguring urban sustainability transitions, analysing multiplicity. Sustainability 9, 299 (2017).
Mocca, E. The local dimension in the degrowth literature. A critical discussion. J. Polit. Ideol. 25, 78–93 (2020).
Dittmer, K. Local currencies for purposive degrowth? A quality check of some proposals for changing money-as-usual. J. Clean. Prod. 54, 3–13 (2013).
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-025-00269-z