Governance Innovations for Accelerated and Equitable Climate and Energy Transitions in Cities

Over 30 years of political action have failed to adequately address climate change (Stoddard et al. 2021). We know that transitioning towards more sustainable energy systems (i.e. moving away from fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions and towards renewable energy and energy savings) is one of the key pathways to achieving net-zero emissions (Zelli et al. 2020). Nevertheless, it has proven difficult to implement the necessary changes. One reason for this is that governing challenges like climate change and energy transitions are complex on many levels and cut across sectors. It involves coordinating many types of actors across different jurisdictions (Nasiritousi and Bäckstrand 2019). How new forms of governance can advance climate and energy transitions is thus a pertinent question with high academic and practical relevance. Cities have a key role to play in these transitions. However, climate action by cities has long been characterized by fragmented authority and experimentation, resulting in slow progress (Bulkeley 2021). In order to find new solutions, the European Union has adopted a mission approach to achieve 100 climate-neutral cities in Europe by 2030. The mission approach thus opens up new possibilities for cities to reshape their governance approach to drive decarbonization. What remains a critical question, however, is how cities make use of the mission approach and whether it represents a move away from business as usual. This workshop will contribute to new knowledge by combining perspectives from green and urban politics in understanding contemporary governance toward net zero in cities.

Bulkeley, H. (2021). Climate changed urban futures: environmental politics in the anthropocene city. Environmental Politics, 30(1-2), 266-284. Leffel, B. (2022). Toward Global Urban Climate Mitigation: Linking National and Polycentric Systems of Environmental Change. Sociology of Development, 8(1), 111-137. Nasiritousi, N., & Bäckstrand, K. (2019). International climate politics in the post-Paris era. Nordic Economic Policy Review, 13(19), 21-62. Stoddard, I., Anderson, K., Capstick, S., Carton, W., Depledge, J., Facer, K., ... & Williams, M. (2021). Three decades of climate mitigation: why haven't we bent the global emissions curve?. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 46(1), 653-689. Zelli, F., Bäckstrand, K., Nasiritousi, N., Skovgaard, J., and Widerberg, O. (Eds) (2020). Governing the climate-energy nexus: institutional complexity and its challenges to effectiveness and legitimacy. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 101-130.

1: How can governance innovations (e.g. the mission approach) contribute to energy transitions in cities?
2: To what extent can governance innovations improve linkages between institutions and stimulate policy integration?
3: How to measure and understand the impacts of governance innovations?
4: To what extent do governance innovations account for equity and justice dimension in climate and energy transitions?
5: How to improve public participation in local energy and climate governance?

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