Understanding Local Adoption and Implementation of Climate Change Mitigation Policy

Abstract

Increasingly, local governments are crafting policy to tackle climate change. This article examines why cities develop and implement climate change programs. The authors consider the impact of interest group pressure, political institutions, and problem severity on a city’s decision to develop and implement climate protection programs. Their results suggest that organized interests influence both adoption and implementation of climate mitigation programs. This effect, however, is contingent on political institutions. In general, organized interests are more effective in mayoral as opposed to city manager forms of governments. Interestingly, while financially strapped cities may adopt climate mitigation programs to advance cobenefits or cost savings, fiscal stress also impedes program implementation.

National climate policies across Europe and their impacts on cities strategies

“…Scholars note the positive influence of national frameworks (Stecker et al, 2012) and climate networks for climate change mitigation, the latter particularly in larger cities (Cerutti et al, 2013;Rosenzweig et al, 2010). However, not all cities develop climate policies in countries that provide national climate policies, or that support international targets or joined supporting networks Sharp et al, 2011).…”

Urban Responses to Climate Change: Framework for Decisionmaking and Supporting Indicators

“…Conversely, greater numbers of environmental nonprofits and citizens with bachelor's degrees or higher were positively correlated with milestone completion in mayoral cities. In cities with managers, metropolitan fragmentation, defined as "the number of general purpose municipal governments and counties existing in a study city's metropolitan area," was negatively correlated with completion of milestones (Sharp, Daley, and Lynch, 2011). These results offer insight into some relevant factors that may influence progression from assessment to plan implementation and evaluation.…”

“…Similarly, Sharp, Daley, and Lynch (2011) found that the duration of ICLEI membership was positively correlated with milestone completion; however, their study revealed other contributing factors. 6 The authors found that governance form (mayor versus city manager model), budgets, economic conditions, interest group influence, and level of organization of nonprofit environmental groups can all shape the level of commitment and sustainment of focus on climate-related initiatives.…”

Stakeholder engagement in climate change policymaking in American cities

“…The presence of co-benefits contributes to initial decisions to engage in climate protection initiatives. However, they have a smaller effect on the follow-through of these actions, political support from local leaders, the influence of interest groups and peer cities, and altruistic motives (Krause 2013;Sharp et al 2010). This finding is consistent with the results of this study.…”

“…These include the social and economic structure of an urban area, preexisting social networks, the severity of different environmental and socioeconomic problems, and the governmental institutions that are in place (Daley et al 2013;Sabatier et al 2005;Sharp et al 2010). …”