Understanding the Power of ‘Place’ in Local Climate Policy-Making

‘Place’ is a key concept in local climate policymaking. Specifically, the energy transition will have asymmetric impacts in different places, depending on their reliance on specific industries and fuels, whereas adaptation policies need to take account of the fact that climate risks vary substantially from place to place. Crucially, however, the concept of ‘place’ can mean different things to different people. In a geographical and/or architectural sense it often refers to a specific location, often characterised by distinct features in the natural and/or built environment, such as rivers, mountains, town squares or landmarks. In political science, it is more likely to relate to a political construct that is surrounded by jurisdictional boundaries that demarcate the extent of a (local) government’s authority. Relevant for both of these dimensions is the idea of a place in a metaphysical sense: place as a philosophical and emotive idea that draws on historical legacies and heritage alongside geographic and political conceptualisations. Some combination of these three dimensions are likely to come together to give people a ‘sense of place’ or generate ‘pride in place’. This theoretical paper outlines a research agenda and set of propositions to examine how actors and institutions might draw on different understandings of place to generate support for – or opposition to – climate action. It suggests that local governments may be able to generate more power to act where the geographic, political and metaphysical understandings of place are largely congruent. Such findings would have implications for contemporary policy agendas in the UK, particularly the prospect of local government reorganisation in England, and raise questions about the assumption that 'size matters' when considering municipal climate action.