Adapting to Climate Change in Europe: a Systematic Analysis of Transnational Municipal Networks and Their Members

As climate impacts intensify across Europe, municipalities have become central actors in designing and implementing climate change adaptation (CCA). Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs) are widely assumed to support these efforts by facilitating knowledge exchange, capacity building, and peer learning. Yet the rapid proliferation of climate-related TMNs has outpaced scholarly attempts to map and compare them systematically. This article provides the first comprehensive analysis of the organisational landscape, membership structure, and support functions of TMNs dedicated to CCA in Europe. Drawing on an original comparative analytical framework and two new datasets covering 12 TMNs and approximately 14,000 local authorities, we combine descriptive statistics, document analysis, and social network analysis to examine how TMNs differ and how they overlap. The findings reveal a landscape characterised by organisational diversity but limited functional differentiation. Despite large variation in size, membership rules, governance arrangements, and thematic scope, networks converge on a core set of activities centred on knowledge circulation, policy guidance, and peer learning. By systematising the European TMN landscape and identifying the extent of functional overlap, this article advances debates on network governance, multilevel climate policy, and municipal adaptation capacity. It lays the empirical foundation for future research on the effects of network membership, the drivers of multiple memberships, and the implications of TMN proliferation for effective and equitable climate adaptation.