Cities and Global Climate Governance

This chapter analyzes the role that cities play for climate governance in multilevel governance systems. It shows that three dimensions of urban climate governance have to be distinguished: hierarchical climate governance, which is restricted to cities implementing international, EU, and national climate change policy; vertical climate governance, in which cities start to influence international and EU climate governance directly; and horizontal climate governance where cities cooperate directly in developing and implementing climate change policy through the establishment of transnational city networks, twinnings, and project networks. Through these three modes cities are increasingly becoming vital elements and active actors in multilevel climate governance systems, although not all cities participate to the same extent. Multilevel climate change governance requires integrated approaches and institutional innovations to cope with the fragmented landscape of climate governance through the vertical and horizontal integration of climate governance systems. Hierarchical, vertical, and horizontal climate governance arrangements contribute to such integration and innovation.