The Urban Climate Challenge: Rethinking the Role of Cities in the Global Climate Regime

In the words of its editors, Johnson, Toly and Schroeder, “[t]his book is about the ways in which cities, transnational urban networks and global governance institutions have repositioned themselves in the context of urbanization and global climate change” (pages 3–4). In order to review this, the editors bring together articles written by scholars working in the fields of global environmental governance, urban sustainability and climate change. In principle the book explores four questions that bear upon how we “understand and asses the changing relationship between cities and the global climate regime” (pages 4).

Part I has three chapters. The first is by the editors to introduce the book. They review our existing knowledge about how cities have been conceptualized within urban and global climate governance, and by doing so they explore how the global climate regime articulates and disseminates climate change considerations. After presenting the current urban climate challenge, the chapter considers the role cities play in the global climate regime.

Saskia Sassen begins Chapter 2 by arguing for increasingly bringing cities into the global climate framework. She claims that they can help to reduce the tension between “reality at ground level and high-level policy-making” (page 24) and “generate a novel type of governance vector” (page 25) for addressing issues that national governments do not or cannot address. In order to do this Sassen highlights two strategic subjects: firstly, using science and technology to transform negative links between cities and the biosphere; and secondly, implementing environmental measures that engage the legal systems and profit logic, which operate in cities and enable much environmental degradation.

In Chapter 3, Katleen de Flander builds upon the significance of cities in the global climate framework by focusing upon their resource flows. She emphasizes that beyond direct climate actions, we need to consider urban transformations in a systemic way to understand how such systems “concentrate in cities but extend far beyond…across vast stretches of the globe” (page 38) and rupture the biosphere’s continuous flows. To restore these ruptures, de Flander advocates for a paradigm shift that includes two key transitions: firstly, a transition from “open” to “closed” urban resource flows; and secondly, a transition from “closed” to “open” urban space governance (page 39).

Part II looks at how cities, transnational urban networks and multinational corporations engage with global governance processes and institutions. In Chapter 4, David Gordon and Michele Acuto focus their attention on assessing both the promises and perils of cities’ efforts at global climate governance and establishing themselves as “legitimate and authoritative global climate governors” (page 65). Gordon and Acuto focus on the C40 Climate Leadership Group, which was created in 2005 with the explicit aim of making cities key actors within the global governance of climate change. By doing so they highlight the challenges faced by collective governance as undertaken by cities.

Chapter 5 specifically considers the interactions between multinational corporations (MNCs) and cities within the sphere of climate governance. Sofie Bouteligier claims that MNCs diffuse particular environmental solutions in cities and also gain environmental authority through their expertise. As such she asserts that MNCs – often through the generation of best practices – “have the potential to mold our global urban future” (page 84). Thus Bouteligier emphasizes the need to include innovative MNCs, with their diverse and extensive experience, in the task of climate proofing and achieving a more sustainable urban future.

Part III brings our focus down to the domestic level, comparing how national policy institutions interact to influence urban governance processes and outcomes. In Chapter 6 Joana Setzer, Laura Valente de Macedo and Fernando Rei analyse “the interactions between transnational and local initiatives in the adoption and implementation of climate policies and legislation” (page 101). They base their analysis on the city of São Paulo and its actions to both inventory and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and implement some adaptation measures. By reviewing the historical process of São Paolo’s local climate policies and evaluating its implementation challenges, the authors assert that whilst transnational activity was key to introducing climate change at the municipal level, it lost its significance during implementation of policy.

In Chapter 7, Sarah Burch and colleagues draw upon case study data in four cities in British Columbia (BC), Canada to explore how national and provincial policy changes impact upon urban climate governance in BC. At the centre of their analysis is the Climate Action Charter – an enabling law that encourages cities to incorporate mitigation and adaptation into local development initiatives. In conclusion they assert that inserting climate change into a broader sustainability framework opens up a way for climate change goals to resonate with local political priorities (page 134).

Chapter 8 turns to India, whereby Emily Boyd, Aditya Ghosh and Maxwell Boykoff evaluate how the global climate adaptation regime plays out in everyday urban spaces within the context of reoccurring flood events in Mumbai. They contend that the challenges of adaptation to climate change are exacerbated by unequal geographies. Therefore it is necessary to have further analyses of how forecasts of extreme events influence planning and access to “adaptation funds”, especially at the city level.

Returning to North America in Chapter 9, Alexander Aylett draws upon the case study of the city of Portland, Oregon to explore “the internal dynamics of mainstreaming engagement with climate change across [urban] institutional silos” (page 156). Through illustrating the city’s journey to becoming a leader in urban climate change responses, he considers the impact upon how we conceive of urban climate governance.  

Part IV gives a regional and comparative perspective of climate policies in cities. In Chapter 10 Patricia Romero-Lankao and colleagues attend to the relationship between multilevel governance and urban institutional capacity for mitigation and adaptation policies. Building upon case study analysis of three Latin American cities – Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Santiago – they explore key factors that shape such policies in these cities and identify how institutional capacity needs to be improved.

Christopher Gore then examines and contrasts two cities in East Africa (Kampala and Dar es Salaam) in Chapter 11. Here, within the context of urban challenges and climate change, he discusses how the structure of government and nature of governance have a strong influence upon institutionalizing and sustaining climate adaptation.

Part V concludes the book with a chapter from the editors to highlight its central themes and to identify questions to direct future empirical research.

Book note prepared by Hannah Keren Lee