Regional governments are increasingly active in policies to mitigate climate change, yet scholarship is only now beginning to emerge to examine this area of policy action at the regional scale. This paper contributes to generating understanding by examining climate policy action in Scotland and Wales. The politics of climate change has climbed up the political agenda since devolution in 1999, and the Scottish and Welsh governments have in recent years been at the forefront of climate policy innovation, especially the drive to expand renewable energy. Both contend that their action to combat climate change is 'world leading'. The paper compares the policy agendas, priorities and political motivations underlying their policy innovation, and the effect of contrasting resources – including constitutional competence; natural resources; capacities within the bureaucracy and civil society - and their relative influence in/access to central (UK) government.
Climate policy is explicitly multi-level, involving policy action from the local to the global scales. Within Europe, the EU increasingly sets the parameters within which member state and regional governments operate. This creates challenges, constraints and opportunities for sub-state governments whose policy choices are shaped by the priorities and positions of higher level governments. It also necessitates intergovernmental negotiation within the multi-level state, and creates scope for paradiplomatic engagement with EU institutions and other sub-state and national governments, including within multilateral forums such as the Climate Group and the Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development. Our paper will examine the dynamics of intergovernmental relations on the domestic and international stage, exploring the strategies, forms of engagement and relative influence of the Scottish and Welsh governments in multi-level climate change negotiation and paradiplomacy. By comparing these cases, we also aim to shed light on the broader dynamics of sub-state policy-making in areas which transgress multiple institutional and governmental layers.
