Urban Climate Change Governance in Development Contexts

Description

Cities are playing a critical and leading role in shaping the trajectory and impacts of climate change action. However, urban climate change mitigation and adaptation responses are inextricably enmeshed within broader political and economic processes; new institutional interactions, new political actors, new ways of coordinating and mobilizing resources, and new frameworks and technical capacities for decision making are necessary. Generating and sustaining effective local solutions is therefore likely to require innovative and multi-level governance approaches.

This colloquy brings together a subset of authors of a recently published edited volume to discuss the book’s findings and spark conversation about promising ways forward for research on cities and climate change. The book grapples with questions arising for cities around the issue of climate change as national, regional and international political conditions shift in many parts of the world. The chapters include examinations of intergovernmental dynamics, citizen engagement, and city networks, and identify important drivers and obstacles of multi-level governance innovations in both developed and developing country contexts. We posit that informed, effective, and accountable institutions are critical to innovations in climate governance; that many of the policy tools, planning strategies, and social and political networks employed extend beyond the jurisdictional confines of many municipal governments; and that governance innovations in these contexts are intensely political and contentious.

Participants will reflect on the following questions that guide the edited volume:
1) How do existing institutional arrangements shape innovation in urban climate change governance?
2) How is climate change governance being restructured at subnational levels
3) Where is such innovation most difficult, or being encouraged?
4) What are the pressing questions cities face going forward?

Period	6 Apr 2018
Event title	Urban Affairs Association Annual Conference
Event type	Conference
Location	Toronto, CanadaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International