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Abstract
The crisis of climate disruption and shortcomings in top-down approaches has focused attention on the effectiveness of governance to achieve climate goals. New sub-national governance models such as business alliances, city networks and NGO coalitions have emerged; such institutional ‘re-making’ is often motivated by frustration at national inaction, and by a belief thatlocal actors offer an effective ‘bottom-up’ approach. Literature on the emergence of climate-led multi-level and polycentric governance focuses primarily on cities; the role of urban-rural counties and of the micro-level of local government, and the challenges and opportunities before them, is less well studied. This paper draws on work in progress in a study exploring progress, challenges and failings in UK climate governance across multiple levels of county-based government: Surrey, an area of towns, peri-urban districts and countryside, is offered as a case study, with a focus on micro-level action in small towns and parishes. We find that despite a lack of national government orchestration or sub-regional frameworks, climate action is occurring voluntarily at all levels of governance. However, the nature of action is variable and irregular and there is little evidence as yet to demonstrate effectiveness. A fragmented form of multi-level governance is observed, with limited upward flows of ideas and no indication of national interest in micro-local climate lessons and experience. We identify the importance of ‘wilful actors’ and the need for greater coordination, information- and knowledge-sharing networks to achieve effective institutional ‘remaking’ for climate action.
Highlights
As the science of climate change has advanced, and concerns over climate disruption have mounted, in recent decades, interest has grown in the implications of climate crisis for governance, the complex interplay of governmental and non-governmental institutions, processes and cross-sectoral and multi-level relationships of policy actors in problem definition and problem solving, agenda setting, orchestration of strategies and policies, and the management of public goods
We have set out the context in which local climate governance arrangements are evolving in the UK, and related them to major themes in the literature on climate, multi-level governance and polycentrism
It may be that the issues we have identified in local climate governance in our case study area have much wider resonance internationally, notably in centralized states where local and regional actors lack adequate resources, recognition and clarity of division of labour concerning climate action
Summary
As the science of climate change has advanced, and concerns over climate disruption have mounted, in recent decades, interest has grown in the implications of climate crisis for governance, the complex interplay of governmental and non-governmental institutions, processes and cross-sectoral and multi-level relationships of policy actors in problem definition and problem solving, agenda setting, orchestration of strategies and policies, and the management of public goods (see, for example, [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]). There has been significant work in academic research and policy development on the local governance of climate action—focusing predominantly on the role of urban municipalities and leading cities (see, for example, [15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]). This reflects the political and Sustainability 2021, 13, 13817. We have seen the emergence of numerous city-led initiatives for climate action, such as the C40 Cities network at the global scale, and of initiatives led by urban mayors in the USA to accelerate climate action in the absence of leadership at the federal level following the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 [19,21,22]
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