Towards a Refined Climate Urbanism Typology: Comparing Local Policy Debates in German and American cities

Abstract

Cities are a key arena in confronting climate change. The concept of climate urbanism describes this emerging policy approach for which climate change has made mitigation and adaptation policies central to urban governance and life in cities. We contribute to the existing canon of climate urbanism scholarship through an empirically driven analysis of the discourse landscape in four cities facing pressure for climate action planning and policy. In each city, we identify themes and evaluate how they fit into the three modalities of a climate urbanism typology proposed by Castán Broto, Robin, and While (2020): reactive, entrepreneurial, and transformative. Furthermore, our research aims to identify which actors are driving these themes, which groups of actors predominantly agree, and what fractures or disagreements exist in our four cities. Informed by these empirical findings, we offer a more nuanced and expanded climate urbanism typology.