Local municipal capacity for climate change action in New York State: Exploring the urban–rural divide

Abstract

Climate change is a critical global issue with profound local impacts. Recent scholarship on local government action to address climate change has primarily focused on cities, with less attention paid to how smaller municipalities and rural communities are tackling the issue. Our research investigates how the capacity of urban and rural municipalities in New York State (NYS) affects their ability to take climate action, utilizing data from a statewide survey, interviews, and secondary data on municipal participation in the NYS Climate Smart Communities program. We investigated how municipal capacity (including individual, management, and broader contextual factors) influences climate change action in rural and urban communities. We find that only a quarter of NYS municipalities have taken climate action, and most are mitigation rather than adaptation actions. There is significantly more climate action and municipal climate network participation in urban versus rural communities. Most local municipal officials believe that climate change is occurring and feel the impacts, yet most are unsure about addressing it at the local level. Climate action is best predicted by individual municipal capacity variables of strong climate beliefs and knowledge, and contextual variables of being in an urban municipality versus a rural one, and participation in climate networks. Key barriers to local climate action include the lack of human, financial, and technical resource capacity. Municipal climate networks can help overcome capacity limitations, particularly for resource‐limited rural communities.

From Emissions Inventories to Cost Accounting: Making Business as Usual Visible for Climate Action Planning

“…Although there are numerous ways to increase the level of detail in this study, our purpose was to demonstrate an approach to economic accounting that would be easy for other communities to replicate. More complex, long-term models, while more informative, would raise the threshold for communities that do not have abundant staffing or funding for assessment and planning [1,4,5], and thus a simple model like the one provided here may be more useful as a first approximation for many communities undertaking a GHG inventory.…”

“…Only 27 had reported a climate action plan at either the municipal or community level. Much of this slow progress can be attributed to limitations of staff and funding resources in local governments [4]. Low motivation can also be a factor in the slow progress of inventories and climate action planning [1,4,5].…”

“…Much of this slow progress can be attributed to limitations of staff and funding resources in local governments [4]. Low motivation can also be a factor in the slow progress of inventories and climate action planning [1,4,5]. Local government officials face competing priorities, and immediate financial demands take priority over the more general goals of carbon reduction and global climate protection [4,5].…”

“…Low motivation can also be a factor in the slow progress of inventories and climate action planning [1,4,5]. Local government officials face competing priorities, and immediate financial demands take priority over the more general goals of carbon reduction and global climate protection [4,5]. Mustering the effort to conduct inventories or plans often requires more immediate incentives.…”

How communities and policy instruments govern sustainability

“…Rural communities may not only tackle boom-bust cycles connected to energy policy but also climate change more generally. Equally focusing on the capacities of communities, Allred et al (2022) show how municipalities in New York State can take climate action. They find that urban municipalities engage more in climate action and climate network participation than rural municipalities, but that both use mitigation rather than adaptation measures.…”