Abstract
Urban areas account for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions, and increasingly, it is city governments that are adopting and implementing climate mitigation policies. Many municipal governments have joined two different global city networks that aim to promote climate policy development at the urban scale, and there is qualitative evidence that such networks play an important role in motivating cities to adopt climate policies and helping them to implement them. Our study objective is to test this proposition quantitatively, making use of a global database on cities’ environmental policy adoption, and also taking into account a large number of other factors that could play a role in climate policy adoption. Controlling for these other factors, we find that network membership does make a significant difference in the number of different measures that city governments adopt. We also find that there are significant differences between the two different networks, suggesting that the nature of the services that such networks offer their members can play an important role. Our findings lead to the provision of a set of global mitigation strategies: First of all, joining the city networks can lead to a generation of global strategies which can result into climate mitigation benefits. However, cities are required to select the network which provides proper tailor made policies. Second, in the absence of concrete international commitments at the local level, city networks lay the ground for global governance and enable cities to adopt policies independently and proactively. Third, consideration of co-benefits of climate policies can optimize the development of global strategies.
Highlights
Cities are the major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with urban residents and activities accounting more than 70% of global anthropogenic GHG around the globe (World Bank 2010)
Cities belonging only to ICLEI adopt more policies on average than those belonging to no networks, while cities belonging to C40, either instead of or in addition to ICLEI, adopt more policies than those belonging only to ICLEI
The results show that joining international networks correlates with an increase in the adoption of climate policies
Summary
Cities are the major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with urban residents and activities accounting more than 70% of global anthropogenic GHG around the globe (World Bank 2010). Some have focused on the socioeconomic and political status of cities as the major policy adoption drivers, while the others have mentioned that cities’ decisions are influenced by external factors such as the decisions of their national governments. Like ICLEI, the C40 network connects cities to address the issue of climate change through the development and implementation of programs and policies leading to a reduction of GHG emissions. C40 organizes different conferences during the year to help cities learn from each other and provides advice and solutions to the cities Both networks require their members to pay membership fees on an annual basis. The relationship between income and policy adoptions has been assessed by Collier (1997) and Mathy (2007); both observed positive correlations between income and the number of climate policies adopted Another socioeconomic factor is the population of the cities. Higher levels of female employment are an indicator of a society’s open mindedness and a government’s positive attitudes towards human rights and surrounding environments. Torgler and Garcia-Valiñas (2007) found that women are generally more worried about climate change and related environmental problems
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