Official Climate Week NYC events calendar

Infill Development: Market-Based Climate Solution

Ben Holland
Matthew Lewis
AnneMarie Gray
Tony Jordan
Tushar Kansal
Event by: Gehl Architects, Pew, Parking Reform Network, World Resources Institute, and the Metropolitan Abundance Project
Event format
In-person
Event duration
1 hour 30 minutes
Language
English
In 2007, McKinsey popularized the global cost curve for climate abatement, ranking interventions from negative-cost efficiency gains to expensive new technologies. Land use has never appeared on that curve, yet infill housing may be one of the cheapest levers available: it lowers vehicle miles traveled and embodied carbon while relying on infrastructure that already exists, and the policies needed to legalize it, like ending exclusionary zoning and restrictive parking mandates, cost governments next to nothing to enact. Removing parking minimums in particular frees up land and lowers construction costs, helping infill projects pencil out and giving rise to more market-driven housing growth and a stronger property tax base. Panelists will explore why land use has remained a blind spot in climate strategy despite this outsized, low-cost potential. Speakers: Ben Holland (Moderator), Vice President, Market Transformation, ULI · Abigail Doerr, Managing Director, Metropolitan Abundance Project · AnneMarie Gray, Executive Director, Open New York · Tony Jordan, President, Parking Reform Network · Tushar Kansal, Senior Officer, Housing Policy Initiative, The Pew Charitable Trusts This session is hosted by Gehl, the Parking Reform Network, Metropolitan Abundance Project, and WRI and is a part of The Urban Climate Solution track at NYC Climate Week 2026. View all events in the track at https://www.urbanclimatesolution.org/.