Metropolitan Governance Capacity and Climate Change Planning : Assessing Metropolitan Responses

Abstract

With political inaction at the federal level in the U.S., there is increased attention on the importance of planning for climate change at the metropolitan level, where implementation of climate change policies would occur. This study reports on a survey of 25 regional planning organizations that was conducted to examine the extent to which regional planning organizations have adopted climate change plans and to identify the factors that impact their ability to take metropolitan level action in regards to climate change initiatives. The findings revealed a majority of regional planning organizations are involved in climate change planning in some way, largely due to existing efforts in complementary policy domains. Based on the findings, a multi-level framework is developed for assessing the institutional capacity of metropolitan governance capacity in climate change policy and planning. Employing this framework would allow regional planning organizations to assess their capacity to address climate change...