City Power:

Governing climate change: polycentricity in action?

“…Yet the room cities have for climate action is shaped by the prevailing national, political and legal context (Johnson et al, 2015). In particular, the national, legal and policy setting hampers what cities can do locally in terms of self-and facilitative governance, limiting the possibilities for self-organisation by cities (Schroeder and Bulkeley, 2009;Schragger, 2016). Thus, some of the high hopes that have been expressed about the benefits of polycentric climate governance are not being borne out in practice.…”

“…It is often argued, and sometimes empirically observed, that cities compete with each other to become the most climate-friendly city, seeking to attract investors and citizens that have a 'green' orientation (McCann, 2013). The underlying assumption here is that city policymakers are mainly interested in economic prosperity, creating jobs and gaining votes by keeping citizens happy (Schragger, 2016). By creating an image of environmental sustainability and climate action and/or rewarding specific forms of investments, for instance reducing property taxes to encourage more energyefficient buildings (van der Heijden, 2015), authorities seek to attract firms.…”