The Role of Cities in European Environmental Policy: The EU Covenant of Mayors as a New Form of Multi-Level Climate Governance

Leading cities have become active players in EU environmental policy. This paper distinguishes three different types of urban-level environmental governance: (i) hierarchical governance emphasizes the role of cities as implementers of EU legislation; (ii) vertical governance leads to direct interactions between EU institutions and cities; (iii) horizontal governance facilitates learning from experience and best practice transfer among cities, in particular through transnational city networks (such as Energy Cities and the Climate Alliance). In addition, it is argued that current interest in the spatial dimension of urban governance, particularly multi-level interactions and good practice transfers through city networking, should be complemented by a concern for temporality, i.e. the analysis of urban pathways. Empirically, the paper explores the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) as a combination of vertical and horizontal governance, supported by the EU Commission and run by transnational city networks. Today, this initiative involves more than 6,600 cities with more than 211 million inhabitants, committing themselves to meet and exceed the European Union reduction objectives for 2020 and 2030. Apart from an analysis of the development of this new form of multi-level climate governance, the paper provides a first assessment of the Covenant’s impact on the ground. From a spatial perspective the paper discusses the uneven concentration of member cities, the role of regional institutions, and the re-emergence of the national dimension as part of this governance architecture. With respect to the temporal dimension the paper refers to the development of selected cities which joined the CoM and analyzes the role of their pasts (e.g. policy histories), material presents (e.g. wealth, size) and (a range of possible) futures, assuming that the temporal dimension is essential for urban transitions towards post-carbon futures and thus the possible impact of initiatives such as the CoM on the ground.