The Means Behind the Methods

2019 ◽  
pp. 116-147
Author(s):  
Sara Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
York City ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Ballot Initiatives ◽  
Change Mitigation

This chapter assesses how New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto have used the three governing strategies—institution building, coalition building, and capacity building—to support their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Each strategy reduces key sources of uncertainty that arise when taking up the new and challenging issue of climate change mitigation. The governing strategies facilitate action on climate change and channel resources to the effort. In this way, the strategies underpin and support governance for climate change mitigation regardless of the particular mode of governing or source of emissions being targeted. These strategies have manifested in different ways: while New York City and Toronto have focused on building stakeholder coalitions invested in and informing city government programs, Los Angeles has focused more on mobilizing voters willing to support ballot initiatives.

Are We There Yet?

2019 ◽  
pp. 148-164
Author(s):  
Sara Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New York ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
York City ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Baseline Levels ◽  
Catalytic Effects ◽  
Change Mitigation

This chapter evaluates the progress the three cities—New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto—have made in reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the effects their efforts have had beyond these direct outcomes. As expected, tracking city-scale GHG emissions is difficult and reporting, in many cases, is inconsistent. In all three cases, city figures show that emissions are declining and at a rate that is largely consistent with longer-term goals—between 12 percent and 26 percent below baseline levels. Moreover, as the three cities work to reduce GHG emissions, they are having much broader effects on local political and administrative arrangements, other cities' efforts to govern GHG emissions, and the decisions of state and provincial governments. These catalytic effects underscore the important mobilizing role cities play in global climate change mitigation efforts.

Repowering Cities

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
York City ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
City Governments ◽  
Participatory Institutions

City governments are rapidly becoming society's problem solvers. As this book shows, nowhere is this more evident than in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto, where the cities' governments are taking on the challenge of addressing climate change. This book focuses on the specific issue of reducing urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and develops a new framework for distinguishing analytically and empirically the policy agendas city governments develop for reducing GHG emissions, the governing strategies they use to implement these agendas, and the direct and catalytic means by which they contribute to climate change mitigation. The book uses a framework to assess the successes and failures experienced in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto as those agenda-setting cities have addressed climate change. It then identifies strategies for moving from incremental to transformative change by pinpointing governing strategies able to mobilize the needed resources and actors, build participatory institutions, create capacity for climate-smart governance, and broaden coalitions for urban climate change policy.

Evaluating Urban Governance

2019 ◽  
pp. 46-78
Author(s):  
Sara Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
City Governments ◽  
Physical Context ◽  
Change Mitigation

This chapter develops a framework for understanding and evaluating the tools available to, and deployed by, city governments for governing, foregrounding the “how” of urban climate change mitigation. The framework has three components. First, city governments make choices about the policies and governing modes they will use to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These choices represent each city's unique route to climate change mitigation and are shaped by the broader social, political, institutional, and physical context. Second, regardless of the specific route a city chooses, there are shared governing strategies city governments can and do use to mobilize participants and resources: institution building, coalition building, and capacity building. These strategies allow city governments to reduce key sources of uncertainty, mobilize the participants, and coordinate the resources needed for change. Third, evaluating urban climate change governance requires evaluating its impacts. These are both reductions in city-scale GHG emissions and broader changes in the city, and beyond, catalyzed by efforts to reduce urban GHG emissions.

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