Abstract
The article studies differences in political leadership in local government in Norway and in Poland and how they might contribute to differences in local climate policy – adaptation as well as mitigation. Based on the literature of different political leadership models in Europe, we ask how the different political leadership traditions affect active leadership in policies related to climate change. This is answered by analyzing nation-wide surveys to municipalities in Norway and Poland. The results confi rm our basic assumption about the differences in leadership between Norway and Poland as being related to differing political models on the local level. Although other factors also explain variations, the fi ndings illustrate the potential of the models in explaining the role of leadership in new policy fi elds – as with climate-change policies.
Highlights
Society is vulnerable to climate change and variability (IPCC, 2014a, 2014b; Bulkeley, 2010)
In this article we study how differences in political leadership in local government in Norway and in Poland might contribute to differences in local adaptive capacity, both related to climate change adaptation and mitigation
A local government system with a strong role for the mayor is likely to result in political leadership, whereas collective systems are more conducive to administrative leadership. (H1A) Further, we expect to find important differences regarding political leadership itself: in Polish municipalities ‘political’ means the mayor; in Norway, CMEs and councilors are more active
Summary
Society is vulnerable to climate change and variability (IPCC, 2014a, 2014b; Bulkeley, 2010). Private actors may play important roles in realizing climate adaptation, but public policy is needed: for instance, by the strengthening of dykes and the widening of river-courses (Meijerink and Stiller, 2013; Osberghaus, Danneberg and Mennel, 2010) If it is to bring significant results, mitigation must be dealt with locally. Investigating the implementation of EU funds in Italy and England, she discovered that in Italian local governments, it was usually the mayor who took charge of acquiring EU funds, whereas in England most actions were undertaken by administrative staff These patterns give rise to different mechanisms in the whole policy-making process, making it more politicized or shifting it towards a technocratic approach. This may have consequences for the democratic legitimacy of the policy in question
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