CONCEPT
and the Collective Mission of Urban Decarbonization
Background and Origin of the Urban Economy Forum (2016–Present)
Urban Economy Forum was founded in 2016, initiated alongside the Global Urban Prosperity Conference, jointly organized with UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Program) in Geneva. This global gathering marked the starting point of a new interdisciplinary dialogue on urban prosperity, urban finance, and sustainable urban development.
Following this milestone, in 2018, the Forum was envisioned to expand its role through a high-level technical guidance meeting, planned to be hosted by UCLG-MEWA and UCLG-World in Istanbul, aiming to strengthen the institutional, technical, and policy dimensions of urban economy discourse.
From that point onward, seven consecutive annual editions of the Urban Economy Forum were successfully held. Each edition was designed as a focused global platform to redefine and advance the meaning of urban economy beyond traditional financial or real-estate perspectives, and toward a comprehensive, multi-dimensional, and capacity-driven understanding of cities.
Throughout these years, the Forum progressively gained international recognition, establishing its regular presence in the Greater Toronto Area, including Toronto, Kitchener, and Vaughan, with direct support in one edition from the City of Toronto itself. This continuity transformed the Forum into a stable global reference point for urban economy dialogue.
Core Intellectual Foundation: Urban Economy as “Sustainable Urban Resources”
From its inception, the Urban Economy Forum was built on one central scientific and strategic conviction:
Urban economy is not limited to money, assets, or markets—urban economy is the total ecosystem of “Sustainable Urban Resources.”
Sustainable Urban Resources refer to all tangible and intangible resources embedded within cities that can activate and sustain urban development capacities, including but not limited to:
• Human capital and social capital
• Land and spatial assets
• Knowledge, data, and innovation systems
• Infrastructure, energy, and mobility
• Governance systems and institutions
• Cultural, environmental, and economic assets
• Financial systems and development capital
These resources are often latent and underutilized potentials. The mission of Urban Economy Forum has always been to:
Identify, unlock, activate, and structure these latent urban resources into real development capacities.
This approach framed urban economy as a capacity-building mechanism, not merely an economic measurement system.
Urban Economy as an Interdisciplinary Global Dialogue
A central belief behind the Urban Economy Forum is that no single discipline alone can define or drive urban development. Urban economy is inherently:
• Interdisciplinary
• Cross-institutional
• Cross-sectoral
• Multi-scalar (local to global)
For this reason, UEF was intentionally designed as a convergence platform bringing together:
• International organizations
• Scientific and research institutions
• Universities and academic networks
• Municipal governments and national authorities
• Development banks and financial institutions
• Private sector and real-estate actors
• Policy-makers, parliamentarians, and technical leaders
The purpose of this convergence has always been to:
Co-produce a comprehensive global definition of urban economy, grounded in practical capacity-building mechanisms.
This dialogue has shaped a new generation of urban economic thinking that connects policy, finance, land, data, governance, innovation, and social systems into one integrated development logic.
The Frontrunner Cities Program: From Knowledge to Practice
In parallel with the Forum, Urban Economy Forum developed the Frontrunner Cities Program as a complementary applied implementation platform. The objective of this program has been to:
• Translate urban economy theory into real urban projects
• Create replicable, scalable, and measurable urban transformation models
• Provide cities with a living laboratory for sustainable urban development
• Generate applied knowledge and evidence-based urban solutions
Through Frontrunner Cities, the Forum moved from dialogue to demonstration, creating a bridge between:
Global knowledge → Urban projects → Institutional learning → Global replication
This strategy transformed UEF into both a knowledge platform and a project-driven implementation ecosystem.
Institutional Impact and Global Engagement
Over the past years, Urban Economy Forum has generated a significant body of global content, policy dialogue, technical frameworks, and institutional partnerships. Across different editions and programs, collaboration has included:
• Mayors and municipal leaders
• Ministers and national authorities
• Members of parliament and local councils
• Central and local governments
• Development banks and financial intermediaries
• UN agencies, multilateral organizations
• Private sector stakeholders and developers
These engagements have positioned UEF as a neutral yet strategic interface between:
Urban governance, urban finance, urban development, and urban innovation.
Launching the 8th Urban Economy Forum: A New Global Phase
Today, Urban Economy Forum is entering a new global phase with the launch of its 8th edition.
Unlike previous editions that each centered around a specific thematic focus, the 8th Urban Economy Forum adopts a broader and more inclusive approach. Instead of narrowing the agenda into a single theme, this edition will embrace:
• The full spectrum of urban economy
• A comprehensive exploration of urban resources
• Multi-sectoral urban development models
• Integrated approaches to land, finance, housing, mobility, climate, governance, innovation, and digital transformation
This broad scope reflects a reality that has become increasingly clear over the past years:
Urban economy is no longer a niche field—it is now one of the most strategic global development arenas of the 21st century.
Strategic Value of the 8th Urban Economy Forum
The 8th edition of the Urban Economy Forum is designed to serve as:
• A global policy and investment interface
• A bridge between cities and international capital
• A knowledge-to-project conversion engine
• A platform for next-generation urban capacity-building
• A hub for global collaboration on sustainable urban resources
It will function simultaneously as:
• A strategic dialogue space
• A project incubation platform
• A financial matchmaking ecosystem
• And a global urban innovation exchange
Vision Statement
The Urban Economy Forum believes that:
The future of cities depends not on how much they consume—but on how intelligently they activate their urban resources.
The 8th Urban Economy Forum represents a renewed global commitment to:
• Transform cities through capacity-building
• Unlock sustainable urban resources
• Connect knowledge, governance, finance, and projects
• And build replicable global models of urban transformation
The 8th Urban Economy Forum and the Collective Mission of Urban Decarbonization
While the 8th edition of the Urban Economy Forum does not follow a single narrow thematic title, it is firmly and strategically anchored in one overarching global priority:
Urban capacity-building for the acceleration of urban decarbonization.
The 8th Urban Economy Forum (UEF8) is shaped by a decisive global shift: decarbonization has moved beyond a sectoral agenda and has become a full urban economic transformation challenge. Recent COP resolutions, reinforced by UN-Habitat, confirm that cities—responsible for over 70% of global emissions and the majority of future population and economic growth—are now the primary arena of climate action. At the same time, the UN World Summit on Social Development (Doha, 2025) has reaffirmed that social protection, decent work, inclusion, and poverty eradication are inseparable from sustainable development. In this integrated global context, capacity building is no longer a supporting activity—it is the core economic infrastructure of urban transformation, enabling cities to govern climate action, manage growth, and protect social stability simultaneously.
UEF8 defines capacity building as a multi-dimensional urban economic framework structured across six interconnected pillars: institutional governance capacity, financial system alignment, land-use and spatial transformation, housing and infrastructure reform, digital and data-driven governance, and innovation-driven urban economies. These pillars determine whether cities can absorb climate finance, manage land and housing markets, deploy resilient infrastructure, stimulate green industries, generate employment, and sustain inclusive economic growth. Without this integrated capacity, decarbonization remains fragmented, investment remains high-risk, and social and economic returns remain unstable.
This integrated urban economic capacity framework is now explicitly mandated by global policy. COP resolutions emphasize multilevel governance, municipal finance capacity, and institutional upgrading as prerequisites for climate implementation. Simultaneously, the Doha Declaration of the UN World Summit on Social Development underscores that sustainable development is impossible without inclusive economic systems, universal social protection, labor-market reform, and long-term public investment in institutional capacity. Together, these global resolutions deliver one unified message: urban decarbonization, social inclusion, and economic resilience must now be governed as a single, integrated transformation agenda—driven by capacity building.
For this reason, the Urban Economy Forum calls upon cities not to act in isolation—but to advance through a coordinated global capacity-building effort for urban economies. UEF8 serves as a global convergence and co-design platform, where mayors, city leaders, development institutions, financial actors, researchers, and private-sector partners stand side-by-side to co-build the next generation of decarbonized, inclusive, and productive urban systems. Through UEF8, capacity building is elevated from a localized administrative function to a global economic doctrine for urban transformation, ensuring that climate action directly translates into economic productivity, social stability, and long-term urban prosperity.
Official Global Invitation to Cities and Mayors – September, Greater Toronto Area, City of Richmond Hill
In this context, the Urban Economy Forum officially invites all cities and mayors worldwide to actively participate in the 8th Urban Economy Forum, to be held in:
September – Greater Toronto Area, City of Richmond Hill, Canada
This gathering is intentionally designed as a multi-stakeholder urban coalition space, where:
• Cities do not compete, but collaborate
• Knowledge is not isolated, but shared
• Finance is not speculative, but strategically aligned with sustainability
• And urban decarbonization is not theoretical, but implemented through real capacity-building mechanisms
The Forum brings together:
• Municipal and national governments
• International organizations
• Financial institutions and development banks
• Urban developers and private sector leaders
• Academic, research, and innovation communities
• Youth, civil society, and professional networks
All of these groups are directly connected to the success of urban decarbonization, and all are essential actors in delivering its outcomes.
A Call for Collective Urban Leadership
The 8th Urban Economy Forum is built on one fundamental belief:
No city can achieve urban decarbonization alone. This is a shared global responsibility.
The Forum therefore stands as a collective call to action, inviting all urban leaders to:
• Align their local strategies with global decarbonization goals
• Share lessons, tools, and urban transformation models
• Build joint financial and institutional mechanisms
• And move together toward a low-carbon, resilient, and inclusive urban future