Institutionalizing low-carbon development practices at the local level: What competencies, capacities and capabilities matter?

When it comes to location – and almost by definition – most climate experiments and new low-carbon development practices have started in a local context. Local policy makers and governments, working closely with local citizen groups and private companies have helped to kick-start innovations. However, despite similar overall conditions, what started in one location did not start in others. Although support by higher levels of government may have been an important element, and occasionally decisive, the composition of local non-state actors and the capacities and capabilities of local governments would seem to be critical variables in this respect. These factors mattered whether and to what extent low-carbon innovations started at all, maintained their momentum over time, ensured inclusive and fair transitions, became a regular part of local practices and gradually became institutionalized. But what has been the role of a country’s political, administrative, and fiscal decentralization and related path dependencies, and how have multi-level governance arrangements shaped such innovations and influenced their sustainability? Based on an initial review of selected low-carbon initiatives in Brazil and South Africa, particularly in the renewable energy sector, this paper will address some of the conditions that have mattered crucially for institutionalizing low-carbon development practices. We argue that some conditions favor and sustain such innovations and lead to their gradual “lock in”, while others may lead to their breakdown.