Evaluation of main drivers and barriers of local climate action in Europe: cities taking action for the sustainable development goals

Abstract

There is no 'Planet B'. Natural but mainly anthropogenic factors make it impossible to maintain in the long term the current earth system. Climate change is a demonstrated fact that urges governments of all kinds as well as civil society to take action; because the climatic threat is not only damaging the environment and the natural resources, is directly threatening society's equilibrium, and security. International governmental panels agree on the need of putting local climate action at the core of the efforts towards mitigating and adapting to climate change. This Thesis develops a deep evaluation of the local climate actions in Europe. In the frame of the European mainstream movement on the topic, and analyzing the first and unique monitoring harmonized database, it evaluates quantitatively and qualitatively the main factors and barriers explaining the effectiveness and the efficiency of the local actions developed in the period 2008-2020. The first of the four publications developed and published during my doctorate years, and that frames this Thesis, analyzes the drivers and barriers explaining the effectiveness of the implementation of concrete climate change mitigation actions by local authorities (LAs) in Europe for that period. After having identified the factors enabling or preventing LAs under the local climate initiative to implement and monitor the local climate actions developed, the second publication of this Thesis quantifies the real mitigation achievements in terms of Greenhouse gasses (GHG) reduction in their territories-i.e., the efficiency of the climate action. Once the effectiveness and efficiency of the local climate action of LAs in Europe were analyzed, the objective was to evaluate the relevance, sustainability and impact of the initiative conducted. That for, in the first place the level of ambition in terms of the GHG reduction target for 2030 established by the LAs was evaluated and the achieved results were described in the third publication of this thesis. Finally the fourth publication moves from mitigation action to adaptation to climate change, evaluating and extracting the main factors describing the local climate action in Europe in the matter. As described in the following sections, these four publications give, for the first time, a comprehensive understanding of the major European local climate action initiative, the only one monitored in a harmonized manner. This thesis analyzes and describe the main attributes leading European LAs to the success or failure of their climate plans and would be of extreme interest for the local climate action in the next period toward 2030 objectives.