Abstract
Climate change actions in cities worldwide are driving deep changes in urban governance. We ask whether new capacities for transformative climate governance are emerging in two cities that have experimented with urban climate governance: Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and New York City (NYC), United States. Transformative climate governance creates the conditions for developing integrated and innovative climate mitigation and adaptation policies and interventions that respond to and shape urban transformation dynamics and contribute to sustainability and resilience. The comparison of capacities for transformative climate governance in Rotterdam and NYC offers insights into the emerging features of urban climate governance vis-à-vis existing urban governance regimes: how urban climate governance is driven and delivered, what new governance conditions emerge, and whether these conditions enable transformative climate governance. In both cities, an integrated, experimental and inclusive approach to climate governance is emerging, which crosses multiple policy sectors and domains (e.g. transport, energy, health, justice), involves a variety of actors and facilitates innovative solutions. Envisioning, long-term goal and knowledge integration, experimentation and tapping into coalitions for change help to provide the basis (including guiding principles, urgency, actor networks, innovative solutions) for transformative climate governance. However, these transformative approaches tend to be still subordinate to business-as-usual interests and policy and planning approaches, which favour isolated, incremental and short-term responses. The challenge for strengthening transformative climate governance will be to develop rigorous institutional and organisational conditions that decisively stipulate a prioritisation of climate change across scales and sectors, provide action mandates and enable wider coordination, collaboration and learning.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 843-857 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Journal of Environmental Management |
| Volume | 231 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Feb 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:New governance structures were created within both city governments to coordinate the implementation of the strategic agendas and ensure that climate priorities are considered. The city's sustainability and resilience offices are central nodes for overseeing, initiating and drafting the strategies and their implementation. They channel information and knowledge, establish connections with on-going processes, motivate action, search for funding and lobby for support. They also participate in cross-scale partnerships and networks to align goals and mediate knowledge and resources across local, regional and national levels. In both cities, the 100RC programme funds the formal position of a Chief Resilience Officer that is tasked with establishing a comprehensive resilience vision for minimising the impact of unforeseen events, work across departments and with the local communities. In NYC, different departments take the lead in coordinating cross-sectoral and cross-scale action on specific topics: For example, EMD coordinates NYC's disaster and emergency planning and response operations. In Rotterdam, each Climate Office's member is placed in different city departments to ensure the office's agenda is taken up in each department's initiatives.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
Funding
New governance structures were created within both city governments to coordinate the implementation of the strategic agendas and ensure that climate priorities are considered. The city's sustainability and resilience offices are central nodes for overseeing, initiating and drafting the strategies and their implementation. They channel information and knowledge, establish connections with on-going processes, motivate action, search for funding and lobby for support. They also participate in cross-scale partnerships and networks to align goals and mediate knowledge and resources across local, regional and national levels. In both cities, the 100RC programme funds the formal position of a Chief Resilience Officer that is tasked with establishing a comprehensive resilience vision for minimising the impact of unforeseen events, work across departments and with the local communities. In NYC, different departments take the lead in coordinating cross-sectoral and cross-scale action on specific topics: For example, EMD coordinates NYC's disaster and emergency planning and response operations. In Rotterdam, each Climate Office's member is placed in different city departments to ensure the office's agenda is taken up in each department's initiatives.
Keywords
- Agency
- Cities
- Governance capacity
- Resilience
- Sustainability transition
- Urban climate governance
