scholarly journals Motivations and Intended Outcomes in Local Governments' Declarations of Climate Emergency

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xira Ruiz-Campillo ◽  
Vanesa Castán Broto ◽  
Linda Westman

Near 1,500 governments worldwide, including over 1,000 local governments, have declared a climate emergency. Such declarations constitute a response to the growing visibility of social movements in international politics as well as the growing role of cities in climate governance. Framing climate change as an emergency, however, can bring difficulties in both the identification of the most appropriate measures to adopt and the effectiveness of those measures in the long run. We use textual analysis to examine the motivations and intended outcomes of 300 declarations endorsed by local governments. The analysis demonstrates that political positioning, previous experience of environmental action within local government, and pressure from civil society are the most common motivations for declaring a climate emergency at the local level. The declarations constitute symbolic gestures highlighting the urgency of the climate challenge, but they do not translate into radically different responses to the climate change challenge. The most commonly intended impacts are increasing citizens’ awareness of climate change and establishing mechanisms to influence future planning and infrastructure decisions. However, the declarations are adopted to emphasize the increasing role cities are taking on, situating local governments as crucial agents bridging global and local action agendas.

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-470
Author(s):  
Helder Do Vale

This article examines the changes at the local level of government that have been taking place in Brazil, India and South Africa for the past thirty years as a result of complex federal decision-making processes. I summarize the most important federal traits of these countries and identify the role of key institutions behind the fiscal, political and administrative changes in local governments. The article draws on the institutional processes to dissect the anatomy of local government reforms in these countries and concludes that although the changes in local government structures and powers have been taken against the background of transition to democracy and/or democratic deepening, the scope of change in local government varied.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-124
Author(s):  
Nguyen Van Quang ◽  
Doan Trieu Long ◽  
Nguyen Dung Anh ◽  
Thanh Nguyen Hai

The important role of local government in the socio-economic development of localities has been confirmed in many domestic and foreign studies. But the role of government in drought adaptation has often received little attention and analysis in domestic studies. Approaching from the local tectonic government model, the article argues that local government is an important link to promote adaptive capacity at the local level of Vietnam and the Central Highlands provinces provide a case study that is typical for research and development of the capacity to adapt to drought and natural disasters for local authorities in Vietnam. Analysis of adaptive capacity through case studies in local government in the Central Highlands provinces shows that capacity is a major challenge for local governments here. The paper recommends that it is necessary to further expand the initiative and role of local authorities in guiding and promoting adaptation for communities and local people. Doi: 10.28991/HEF-2021-02-02-03 Full Text: PDF


2017 ◽  
pp. 29-41
Author(s):  
Yurij RADELYTSKYJ

Introduction. Fiscal decentralization as the main vector of development of Ukraine in general and local government in particular has set scientific and expert community task of defining feasibility and effectiveness of the reforms and their compliance with requirements and needs of society. Purpose. Analysis of the tool of organization of local budgets in Ukraine due to decentralization process to define the main results of these innovations and make recommendations for improving the system. Results. Specific features of organization of local budgets in Ukraine in terms of local government reform are observed. It is made comparative analysis of formation and execution of local budgets before and after the reform. Peculiarities of formation of the revenue of local governments are examined. Tax revenue is defined as the main source of local budgets. It is analyzed the main characteristics of collection of major budget-taxes. The features of expenditure policies at the local level are investigated. The main problems of this process are defined. It is investigated the place and role of intergovernmental transfers as a part of local budgets. The features of forming of intergovernmental transfers and horizontal fiscal equalization of local budgets in consequence of financial decentralization are determined. General conclusions resulting from the study are made. Conclusion. Reform of the system of local budgets requires a comprehensive update of local government and simultaneous implementation of sectoral reforms. In the system of local budget revenues development and selection of algorithm of formation of a well-defined orientation to ensure financial autonomy and financial viability and its implementation on an ongoing basis is a priority. The task of reforming expenditure part of local budgets is orientation of financial resources to secure capital expenditures and implementing their own powers of local government.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5978
Author(s):  
Miquel Salvador ◽  
David Sancho

The role of local governments in promoting policies to combat climate change is critical. In order to play this role, local administrations must have different capacities that allow them to analyze, manage and transform their environment through public policies. This article aims to contribute to the academic debate on the role of local governments in the articulation of climate change policies and sustainable development. The proposal combines a conceptual and analytical contribution, which is illustrated by means of a case study analysis. At the conceptual and analytical level, the article proposes a review of the contributions from the perspective of public policies and organizational management models in order to introduce an analytical framework based on four capacities: strategic, analytical, managerial and collaborative. This framework is developed based on the design of a strategy to measure the existence of these capabilities in a given local government by means of specific indicators. This analytical framework is applied through a case study of Barcelona City Council and its policies to combat climate change and promote sustainable development. The results of the analysis highlight the importance of the combined action of the four management capacities mentioned as a precondition for the articulation of this type of policies at the local government level.


2021 ◽  
pp. 118-128
Author(s):  
Ajibade Olalekan Eyitayo ◽  
Olabode Bolanle Motunrayo

The study examines the role of local governments as a training ground for national political leadership in Nigeria expending Yewa South Local Government as a study. Survey research design was adopted in conducting this research and relies on primary and secondary sources for data collection. The population for this study consists of employees of Yewa South Local Government council. The primary data came from the one hundred and six (106) questionnaires that were administered to the respondents. The research showed that local governments serve as a training ground for national political leadership in Nigeria expending Yewa South Local Government as a research. This was further supported when out of 102 respondents sampled, 40% of the respondents strongly agreed that indigenous government functions as guidance in lieu of national political leadership. The aforementioned was also discovered that local governments have significantly facilitated national political leadership in Nigeria. The paper concludes by saying that ifthe qualities of governance defies in Nigeria are to be transcended, Nigerian frontrunners must eschew self-regarding inclinations and stimulate the conjoint good of the Nigerian people through people oriented governance. The paper therefore recommends that concerted exertions must be geared in the direction of certifying that they are audacious and determined leaders, fortified to tackle these challenges: reviving local governance; guaranteeing resilient democratic culpability; constructing civil society; creating hard-hitting choices amid compressions; decentralizing power to indigenous people; endorsing equality; and undertaking disparity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Najamuddin Khairur Rijal

This study examines the role of global civil society at the local level in climate change mitigation. Climate change issue is one of the global issues that is responded at the local level, as the impact of the problem concerns the universal livelihood of the world’s population. This study focuses on Earth Hour’s activities in the Malang region as a part of a global civil society. This research uses global civil society and its role in environmental governance as the analytical framework. The data are collected through documentation studies and interviews. The results show that Earth Hour Malang’s activities have three important roles in climate change mitigation efforts, namely information-based role, providing policy inputs to the government, and performing operational functions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Qingyun Chen

Reforming local government organizations is of decisive significance. Reform at the local level is not only affected by the exemplary role of the central government organization reform, but also has its own special background and contents. Reforming local government is a greater challenge than reforming the central government as there usually are few posts offered by local governments at lower levels or few private companies in the small cities and towns of China with the capacity to absorb the downsized government employees. Beijing, Zhejiang, Liaoning, Sichuan, Guangdong, and others have made valuable explorations into the formidable task of reform, and each city has accumulated a wealth of experiences.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antung Deddy Radiansyah

Gaps in biodiversity conservation management within the Conservation Area that are the responsibility of the central government and outside the Conservation Areas or as the Essential Ecosystems Area (EEA) which are the authority of the Regional Government, have caused various spatial conflicts between wildlife /wild plants and land management activities. Several obstacles faced by the Local Government to conduct its authority to manage (EEA), caused the number and area of EEA determined by the Local Government to be still low. At present only 703,000 ha are determined from the 67 million ha indicated by EEA. This study aims to overview biodiversity conservation policies by local governments and company perceptions in implementing conservation policies and formulate strategies for optimizing the role of Local Governments. From the results of this study, there has not been found any legal umbrella for the implementation of Law number 23/ 2014 related to the conservation of important ecosystems in the regions. This regulatory vacuum leaves the local government in a dilemma for continuing various conservation programs. By using a SWOT to the internal strategic environment and external stratetegic environment of the Environment and Forestry Service, Bengkulu Province , as well as using an analysis of company perceptions of the conservation policies regulatary , this study has been formulated a “survival strategy” through collaboration between the Central Government, Local Governments and the Private Sector to optimize the role of Local Government’s to establish EEA in the regions.Keywords: Management gaps, Essential Ecosystems Area (EEA), Conservation Areas, SWOT analysis and perception analysis


e-Finanse ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-75
Author(s):  
Adam Mateusz Suchecki

AbstractFollowing the completion of the process of decentralisation of public administration in Poland in 2003, a number of tasks implemented previously by the state authorities were transferred to the local level. One of the most significant changes to the financing and management methods of the local authorities was the transfer of tasks related to culture and national heritage to the set of tasks implemented by local governments. As a result of the decentralisation process, the local government units in Poland were given significant autonomy in determining the purposes of their budgetary expenditures on culture. At the same time, they were obliged to cover these expenses from their own revenues.This paper focuses on the analysis of expenditures on culture covered by the voivodship budgets, taking into consideration the structure of cultural institutions by their types, between 2003-2015. The location quotient (LQ) was applied to two selected years (2006 and 2015) to illustrate the diversity of expenditures on culture in individual voivodships.


1985 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Robert H. Rittle

Some are born to computer literacy, while others have literacy thrust upon them! Students who comprise the next generation of political scientists and public administrators will, in many cases, fall into the latter category. This article concerns the role of university training programs in meeting the increasing demands for microcomputer skills.The January, 1984 issue of Public Administration Review included five articles concerning microcomputers in local government. These articles anticipate “major changes in the way local governments organize and the means by which they carry out operations,” as a result of microcomputer technology. Predicting a significant impact of microcomputers in local government, the International City Management Association has also published a major monograph on microcomputer use (Griesemer, 1984).


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