Local Government and Climate change II: Multilevel Politics and Policymaking

Abstract

The climate crisis has gained increased attention in European cities and municipalities, and has been put on the agendas of local government. Some cities and municipalities are front-runners, and are developing more radical climate policies and governance tools than national authorities. Local climate budgets, green public procurement, green strategies and green economic incentives are examples of local governance innovations, although some climate policies (like car-reducing measures) can polarize the local political landscape. Crucially, these local initiatives are all developed within multilevel arrangements, in which global, EU, national and state actors shape the context for local policymaking, and these actors may also be influenced by municipal activity. This panel will discuss the role of local government in the green shift, with a particular focus on how climate strategies and energy transitions are shaped by multilevel political dynamics. Hence, the panel includes papers that address issues such as: • Conflicts and coherence in climate policy across tiers of governance • National and state-level funding schemes for local climate action • Upscaling of local climate innovations • The role of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and EU institutions in local climate policymaking

Title	Details
Resilient and sustainable? Climate change adaptation strategies in the 100 Resilient Cities initiative over time and space	View Paper Details
The local governance of multimodal mobility hubs	View Paper Details
Cities in EU multilevel climate policy: governance capacities, territorial approaches, and upscaling local experiments	View Paper Details
Meaning-making between global aspirations and local realities: Contested sustainability in EU urban mobility governance	View Paper Details
Climate labs versus unused potentials: Examining the rural-urban divide in local climate mitigation	View Paper Details