FOREWORD
In November, the UK will host the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow
The most significant diplomatic gathering of our generation, COP26 will be staged against a backdrop of unprecedented threats to the future of our planet and clear warnings of the consequences of our shared failure to act.
But it also comes amid growing optimism that cooperation, commitment and effort can reduce global temperatures, build resilience and set our planet on a safer and more secure path.
Cllr Susan Aitken, Leader, Glasgow City Council
World leaders gathering in Scotland’s largest city know they must build on the commitments agreed at COP21 in Paris and address the urgency of the global climate crisis with solutions.
They know too that COP26 must go beyond policies and pledges and deliver clear and signposted pathways to Net Zero carbon and practical interventions to secure it. As we scale up efforts to curb emissions, Glasgow and our urban peers are at the vanguard of international action on greenhouse gas emissions and transforming climate aspirations into accelerated action. As the world’s carbon hotspots we are where the biggest challenges are found but also where the greatest gains towards net zero can be delivered. Whilst nation states pledge it is cities like ours which deliver.
Here in Glasgow, a cleaner and more just planet can be within our grasp. But so too more sustainable and equitable societies, where reducing carbon emissions goes hand in hand with nurturing healthier and more prosperous communities, more modern economies and addressing deep-rooted social and physical challenges. COP can be the defining moment for our planet. A city in transition, it is also Glasgow’s opportunity to demonstrate a new and different path - to the world where pioneering solutions to the urban challenges of sustainability can be delivered.
As hosts, we have a responsibility to ensure that our talented, innovative, and globally-connected city grasps that opportunity by accelerating the redirection of global capital flows into net zero, climate resilient activity.
The Greenprint for Investment is our way of making this happen. It includes £30bn of investments and place-based development opportunities at various stages of maturity. Some are investment-ready – others are under development where we are keen to shape and co-design them with investors. All are transformational – showing how reducing emissions and building resilience creates better places and sustainable jobs. They also address wider Sustainable Development Goals, and the long-standing challenges typical of the world’s post-industrial cities.
Glasgow already has a global reputation as an attractive, nurturing and investable global location, a city of flourishing partnerships, with a strong and growing skills and talent base, and eco-systems of cutting-edge firms utilising advanced technology. As we embark upon the next phase of our transition, Glasgow is keen to use the Greenprint to broker the sustainable investments the world urgently needs, but also build longer term relationships. The investments in this prospectus are only the beginning of the transformation needed in Glasgow City Region in this decisive decade.
A ‘Glasgow Agreement’ can, with good fortune and hard work, be negotiated here in our city. But delivering on the promise of a greener, more equitable future for us all can only happen by financing the transformation of the world’s towns and cities. We invite you to start that here, with us, in the city of COP.
