Climate governance in the post-industrial city: the urban side of ecological modernisation

Abstract

Ecological modernisation (EM) is probably the most widely adopted approach to climate policy, as evidenced by the Kyoto Protocol Flexible Mechanisms, or by the European Union Emissions Trading System. However, far from being deployed only at national and global scales, EM seems to be deployed also locally, as the growing global phenomenon of cities’ involvement in climate governance suggests. That is what this study wants to verify by focusing on the city of Genoa, Italy, whose climate policy is assessed through a set of four criteria already used by EM scholars: win-win stance, policy integration, decentralisation and smart regulation, technological and institutional innovation. Results show that Genoa’s approach to climate change can be firmly qualified as EM and that this outcome is due as much to elements specific to the municipality as to external influences. However, EM observed in Genoa seems qualitatively different from EM which can be observed within nation-states or some industrial sectors, mainly because it displays a specifically urban character. Thus, the article concludes with the hypothesis that an ‘urban’ EM is emerging, namely an EM that reflects the peculiarities of the governance of post-industrial cities within a global context.