Rethinking the State: Driving transformative public policy in the era of climate emergency
The world needs new ideas, institutions, and policies to avoid catastrophic climate breakdown. Yet markets will not find a green direction alone. To deliver a just transition to net zero, states must go beyond market-fixing and derisking and embrace their role as market shapers.
Public investment and mission-oriented industrial strategy can galvanise green innovation by holistically shaping new markets, whilst green financial policy can incentivise private capital to align with climate goals in ways that create clear accountability.
People joined us virtually and in-person at the IIPP Forum 2024 to rethink the existing policy paradigms and to explore what these transformative ‘market shaping’ policy approaches look like in practice.
FLAGSHIP EVENING PANEL DISCUSSION
New Economic Thinking for a New Industrial Strategy
Wednesday 12 June, 18:00 - 19:30 BST
Industrial strategy is back around the world; however, it risks reverting to old models focused on promoting specific sectors and technologies, guided by outdated economic assumptions that limit the role of the state. It is often also being advanced without a global equity or global climate action lens. IIPP’s new Strategic Economics Alliance (SEA), spearheaded by Professor Mariana Mazzucato and Dr Carolina Alves, aims to strengthen new economic thinking and its influence on economic policy, including in the area of green industrial strategy.
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FORUM SESSIONS
As part of the IIPP Forum 2024, UCL IIPP is hosting three plenary sessions exploring new approaches to drive transformative public policy in the era of climate emergency.
The plenary sessions will be complemented with workshops and case explorations of public sector capabilities being developed to deliver net zero goals.
Public sector capacities for transformative public policies
Wednesday 12 June, 14:00 - 15:15 BSTGovernments globally are (re-)turning to diverse industrial policy instruments to fight multiple crises and tackle long-term societal challenges such as the climate emergency. As the industrial strategy is being updated to fit the needs of 21st-century challenges and political realities, this session will investigate whether governments – and researchers – are updating the way to create capable agencies, effective coordination mechanisms and proper evaluation tools for new industrial policy mixes.Click here for more information
Financing the ecological transition
Wednesday 12 June, 15:45 - 17:00 BSTThis session critically examined the dominant policy narrative in which the private sector dictates the pace and direction of the green transition and considered alternative macrofinancial arrangements, including global reforms, that could more effectively steer economies towards sustainable well-being.Click here for more information
Designing Transformation
Thursday 13 June, 09:00 - 10:15 BSTThe last century saw the role of design in society grow from an enabler of industrialization and mass production to drivers of digital services, but with the climate crisis upon us, now is the time to widen the design discourse to take on the grand, complex challenges we face today. This session to explored if and how design strategies can accelerate the shift in policy practice needed to support transformation on the scale that the climate crisis demands.Click here for more information
Public sector capabilities for net zero missions
Thursday 13 June, 10:30 - 12:30 BSTAcross the OECD alone, more than 80 'net-zero missions' have been adopted across 20 countries that target large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Using the ongoing development at IIPP of a Public Sector Capability Index as a frame and bringing to the forefront this wealth of experience of driving these net zero missions, the IIPP Forum 2024 presented an interactive session focused on fostering knowledge exchange and peer-learning among policymakers and practitioners, dealing with similar challenges in strengthening their organisational capabilities for the green transition.Click here for more information
Building state capacity in the digital age: an infrastructure-based approach to the digital transit…
Thursday 13 June, 14:00 - 15:15 BSTThe digital era has brought about significant changes in how societies operate, and the expectations placed upon governments to deliver services, policies, and goods effectively and at scale. Paper-based, siloed government infrastructure and associated practices are no longer effective in the 21st century. Moving towards digital-era government implies rethinking how governments operate and what public infrastructure means.Click here for more information
Contact information: IIPPForum@ucl.ac.uk