Studies of the urban governance of climate change have proliferated over the past decade, as municipalities across the world increasingly place the issue on their agendas and private actors seek to respond to the issue. This review examines the history and development of urban climate governance, the policies and measures that have been put into place, the multilevel governance context in which these are undertaken, and the factors that have structured the posibilities for addressing the issue. It highlights the limits of existing work and the need for future research to provide more comprehensive analyses of the achievements and limitations of urban climate governance. It calls for engagement with alternative theoretical perspectives to understand how climate change is being governed in the city and the implications for urban governance, socioenvironmental justice, and the reconfiguration of political authority.

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Cities and the Governing of Climate Change

We explore how the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) program, a network that is simultaneously global and local, state and nonstate, could be conceptualized as part of global environmental governance. We suggest that traditional approaches to international relations— regime theory and transnational networks—offer limited conceptual space for analyzing such networks. These approaches obscure how the governance of global climate change takes place through processes and institutions operating at and between a variety of scales and involving a range of actors with different levels and forms of authority. We contend that it is only by taking a multilevel perspective that we can fully capture the social, political, and economic processes that shape global environmental governance. KEYWORDS: climate change, multilevel governance, global environmental governance, transnational networks.

Cities and the Multilevel Governance of Global Climate Change

Having outlined a theory of heterogeneous social construction, this article describes the scientific construction of climate change as a global-scale environmental problem caused by the universal physical properties of greenhouse gases. Critics have noted that this reductionist formulation serves a variety of political purposes, but instrumental and interest-based critiques of the use of scientific knowledge tend to ignore the ways in which a politics gets built into science at the upstream end. By retracing the history of climate modeling and of several scientific controversies, I unmask the tacit social and epistemic commitments implied by its specific practices. The specific scientific framing of global climate change has reinforced and been reinforced by the technocratic inclinations of global climate management. The social organization of climate change science and its articulation with the political process raise important questions about trust, uncertainty, and expertise. The article concludes with...

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The Construction of Global Warming and the Politics of Science

The past decade has witnessed a growing interest among scholars of international relations, and global environmental governance in particular, in the role of transnational networks within the international arena. While the existence and potential significance of such networks has been documented, many questions concerning the nature of governance conducted by such networks and their impact remain. We contribute to these debates by examining how such networks are created and maintained and the extent to which they can foster policy learning and change. We focus on the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) program, a network of some 550 local governments concerned with promoting local initiatives for the mitigation of climate change. It is frequently asserted that the importance of such networks lies in their ability to exchange knowledge and information, and to forge norms about the nature and terms of particular issues. However, we find that those local governments most effectively engaged with the network are mobilized more by the financial and political resources it offers, and the legitimacy conferred to particular norms about climate protection, than by access to information. Moreover, processes of policy learning within the CCP program take place in discursive struggles as different actors seek legitimacy for their interpretations of what local climate protection policies should mean. In conclusion, we reflect upon the implications of these findings for understanding the role of transnational networks in global environmental governance.

Transnational Networks and Global Environmental Governance: The Cities for Climate Protection Program

This paper argues that, in order to address the challenges of climate change, attention needs to be focused not only at the international level but also on how climate protection policy is taking shape locally. It provides a comparative analysis of local climate change policy in Germany and the UK. By moving the focus from an analysis of the formal competencies of local government to the multiple modes of governing through which climate protection is taking place, the similarities between the two countries are brought into view. In both cases, actions are concentrated in the energy sphere and municipalities are increasingly deploying self-governing and enabling approaches to undertaken emissions reductions. The paper argues that the impacts of EU policies, financial crises and the political challenges of implementing climate change policies are changing the capacity for local intervention, with potentially significant consequences for medium- and long-term goals for climate protection.

Local Government and the Governing of Climate Change in Germany and the UK

While climate change is obviously a global environmental problem, there is nevertheless potential for policy initiatives at the local level. Although the competences of local authorities vary between countries, they all have some responsibilities in the crucial areas of energy and transport policy. This paper examines local competences in Sweden and the UK and looks at the responses to the climate change issue by six local authorities, focussing on energy related developments. The points of departure are very different in the two countries. Swedish local authorities are much more independent than UK ones, especially through the ownership of local energy companies. Yet, UK local authorities are relatively active in the climate change domain, at least in terms of drawing up response strategies, which they see as an opportunity for reasserting their role, after a long period of erosion of their powers. Furthermore, there is more scope for action in the UK, as in Sweden many potential measures, especially in the energy efficiency field, have already been taken. However, in both countries climate change is only a relatively marginal area of local environmental policy making and the political will, as well as the financial resources, for more radical measures are often absent.

Think Globally, Act Locally? Local Climate Change and Energy Policies in Sweden and the UK

Although intrinsically a global environmental concern, the climate change issue has a number of implications for local authorities. Within the European Union (EU), the remit of local authorities in—‐for abatement policies—the crucial areas of energy and transport policy varies considerably, as does their commitment to environmental action more generally. This paper examines the role of local authorities in climate protection within a framework of global, EU and national action, through examples of local strategies from Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK. The paper finds positive instances of action in all countries, but points to unsympathetic policy frameworks both at national and EU level, such as budget constraints imposed on local authorities, the pursuit of low energy prices combined with a resistance to impose carbon taxes, a lack of energy efficiency standards and insufficient support for public transport.

Local authorities and climate protection in the European union: Putting subsidiarity into practice?

The European Union (EU) has to date failed to implement an effective response to the climate change issue. This article identifies a number of explanatory factors. It argues that, first and foremost, the proposed strategy hinged on measures in two areas which have traditionally been the prerogative of the member states, namely energy and fiscal policy. In a general climate of subsidiarity, there has been little readiness (especially by some member states) to cede more sovereignty. Furthermore, other issues, such as lack of strong leadership, uncertainty about costs, economic concerns and heavy industrial lobbying, have also influenced policy developments. The lack of effective EU‐level measures means that emission reductions will depend on action in the member states, at national, regional and local levels. However, the article finds relatively few incidences of effective policies being implemented at other levels of decision‐making and a general lack of co‐ordination between the different levels...

The European Union's climate change policy: Limiting emissions or limiting powers?

Liberalisation in the energy sector continues as a dominant theme in the European Union in the 1990s but little attention is being given to its potential environmental implications. However, issues of regulation, structure, ownership and scale of operation are crucial determinants in the environmental performance of the energy sector. This paper examines the situation in Germany where, as both federal energy policy measures and activities of the large energy companies have given limited attention to environmental matters, an increasing number of local councils and municipally owned energy companies have been adopting so-called local energy concepts with environmental concerns as a main driving force. It is shown that while countries like the UK struggle to induce their privatised energy companies into environmental activities, local public companies in Germany are at the forefront of implementing more environmentally benign energy systems. It is argued that, at a time when many decision-makers are preoccupied with promoting greater competition and private ownership, the benefits of local public ownership and decentralised planning in at lease part of the energy sector may be overlooked. If the political priorities at the local level are skewed in favour of the environment, local, integrated energy plans, implemented by public utilities, can reap substantial environmental benefits.

Ute Collier

Papers

Think Globally, Act Locally? Local Climate Change and Energy Policies in Sweden and the UK

Local authorities and climate protection in the European union: Putting subsidiarity into practice?

The European Union's climate change policy: Limiting emissions or limiting powers?

Local Energy Concepts in Germany – An Environmental Alternative to Liberalisation?

Climate change and the European union: Towards a green and common energy policy?