Sustainable Development Strategy for the Global City: A Case Study of Sydney

Richard Hu

doi:10.3390/su7044549

Abstract

Global cities, the command and control centres of the integrated world economy, are facing a sustainability paradox of greater global competition and greater environmental pressure. This study explores the policy approaches to the sustainability paradox by integrating environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness into the development strategy for “the global city”, based on a case study of Sydney. Dissecting Sustainable Sydney 2030, the strategy to guide the City’s development in the early 21st century, reveals the approaches used to achieve the integration. The approaches include green economy, sustainable redevelopment, integrated transport and connectivity, development of attractive public space, urban design for sustainable and good-looking urban form, marketisation of sustainability for a competitive edge, and a relational planning approach. Altogether they target mutually supportive benefits of environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness. The findings point out new directions for the City’s strategic development, and suggest a useful reference for counterpart global cities to address the common sustainability paradox.

Highlights

This study injects sustainability into the conceptualisation of and approaches to the development strategy for “the global city”, which has been constructed to capture the impacts of contemporary globalisation on cities
Integrating environmental sustainability with economic competitiveness into the development strategy is a common imperative for all cities, but it is a more demanding challenge for global cities
This study aims to unpack the “integrativeness” of environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness in the development strategy for the global city

Summary

Introduction

This study injects sustainability into the conceptualisation of and approaches to the development strategy for “the global city”, which has been constructed to capture the impacts of contemporary globalisation on cities. According to Sassen [1], global cities are the command and control centres of the integrated world economy; they represent a new urban phenomenon that embeds a particularity in Sustainability 2015, 7 contemporary globalisation. This conceptualisation has determined that the development strategy for global cities has been economic-centric, dominated by a globalised neoliberal urbanism that has prioritised global competitiveness. Global cities are facing increasing environmental pressure This presents a sustainability paradox for global cities since they experience higher development pressure from global competition, which causes more negative environmental consequences [2]. Integrating environmental sustainability with economic competitiveness into the development strategy is a common imperative for all cities, but it is a more demanding challenge for global cities

Objectives

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion