Abstract
Reducing carbon emissions from the transport sector has become a critical imperative for public policy as our understanding of the impacts of the mobility system on the environment has developed. This paper contrasts policy development in three cities (Aberdeen, Bremen and Malmö) that collaborated as part of a European Union knowledge exchange programme designed to share innovative approaches to carbon reduction in the transport sector. We identify a number of critical aspects of governance, including the approach to policy formulation and implementation, and the status of consensus and cohesion, as key determinants of transport outcomes. We conclude that the degree of institutional alignment evident in each city’s governance network is crucial in explaining their appetite for the pursuit of low carbon policies, and in turn the real potential for policy transfer to occur as envisaged by European Union collaboration frameworks.
Highlights
Transport is responsible for approximately 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe and represents a key domain for policy action if international targets for decarbonisation of the economy are to be met (Banister et al, 2012)
Policy transfer through the sharing of best practice may have become ‘accepted wisdom’ in the minds of many participants and the sponsors of European programmes that facilitate it (Bulkeley, 2006), but it remains highly problematic in practice
Bulmer and Padgett (2004: 103) suggest that the most successful transfers sponsored by the European Union (EU) are the coerced and negotiated ones regarding macro level finance mechanisms, which occur in the ‘more highly institutionalized governance regimes’ in which the central governments of member states thrash out compromise
Summary
Transport is responsible for approximately 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe and represents a key domain for policy action if international targets for decarbonisation of the economy are to be met (Banister et al, 2012). The specific context of who learns what from whom for the purposes of our research is clear: in the policy exchange and best practice sharing network we studied, the UK local authority (Aberdeen) identified itself as ‘lagging behind’ in terms of implementing a variety of low carbon policies envisaged in its plans and strategies, and had a clear ‘strategic need’ (Marsden et al, 2011) to learn from continental cities (in this case Bremen and Malmo ) which were perceived to be more successful in decarbonising transport as part of a wider strategy for the future This strategic need reflects a longstanding perceived gap between the success of the vast majority of British local governments in implementing not just low carbon policies, but effective transport policies more generally, in comparison to their continental peers (see Docherty and Shaw, 2011).
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