Harnessing community energy: the keys to climate mitigation policy adoption in US municipalities

Abstract

Many US municipalities are engaged in climate change mitigation planning or efforts to reduce their communities' greenhouse gas emissions. However, most have adopted very few policies to implement their climate change mitigation goals, and many others are not pursuing climate change mitigation at all. This study examines municipalities' approaches to energy and climate issues and identifies the "keys to success" that influence the extent to which they adopt climate change mitigation policies.Prior researchers have characterised climate change mitigation efforts as an example of multi-level governance, in which policies are formulated through a variety of networks and interactions between government actors and civil society. I find that municipalities that engage community interests and coordinate with neighbouring jurisdictions in their energy and climate planning processes are far more likely to adopt meaningful policies and conclude that such multi-level governance approaches are actually critical to the success of climate change mitigation planning. IntroductionThe past 5 -10 years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of US municipalities engaged in climate change mitigation planning or efforts to reduce their communities' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through land use, transportation, and energy-related programmes and policies. Municipal approaches to climate change mitigation are important, as most forms of energy use can be traced to actions that are in one way or another influenced by local government policies. For example, approximately 40% of end-use energy consumption is attributable to buildings (US Department of Energy 2008b), and 17% comes from passenger vehicle travel (US Department of Energy 2008a, 2008c), both of which are affected by local land use regulations, building codes, and transportation plans. Additionally, to achieve meaningful long-term GHG emission reductions will require not just policy initiatives, but also a concerted effort among citizens, businesses, and institutions to reduce their respective energy use and carbon footprints, and local governments are well positioned to encourage and facilitate such efforts at the community level.Betsill and Bulkeley (2007) have distilled the previous research on climate change mitigation planning into three predominant themes: city approaches to climate change are an example of multi-level governance (e.g. Gupta 2007, Selin and Van Deveer 2009); they demonstrate the importance of technical knowledge in shaping public policy and the role of multiple actors in knowledge accumulation; and the rhetoric of climate protection is not fulfilled by the realities of current climate change mitigation policy. Some of the prior works have characterised climate change mitigation planning as "Type II" multi-level governance, which Betsill and Bulkeley describe as a form of governance "dominated by networks between public and private actors across levels of social organization" (2007, p. 449).This study examines the approaches taken in 17 US cities to ...

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