The Power of Cities in Global Climate Politics

Saviours, Supplicants or Agents of Change?

Craig A. Johnson

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781137594686
• eBook ISBN:
  9781137594693
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Global Warming & Climate Change
• Index: Social Sciences

Critically explores how cities are engaging in climate change mitigation, adaptation and experimentation at a variety of urban and global scales

Identifies new ways cities can contribute to low carbon development pathways in responding to global climate change

Illustrates how city-engagement in global climate politics informs our understanding of power in global environmental regimes

© The Author(s) 2018

Craig A. JohnsonThe Power of Cities in Global Climate PoliticsCities and the Global Politics of the Environmenthttps://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59469-3_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: The Power of Cities in Global Climate Politics

Craig A. Johnson¹

(1)

University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

Craig A. Johnson

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

This chapter introduces the volume by exploring the recent groundswell of enthusiasm surrounding the growing prominence of cities and city-networks in global climate politics . It first highlights the principal observations that have been made about the role of cities in global climate politics, highlighting the tensions and debates that are now animating the field. It then provides a roadmap for the rest of the volume, outlining its contribution to our understanding of city involvement in global climate politics.

Keywords

CitiesCity-networksGlobal climate governanceThe politics of climate change

In order to fulfil my solemn duty to the United States and its citizens, the US will withdraw from the Paris climate accord…I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.

US President Donald Trump, 1 June 2017 (https://​www.​theguardian.​com/​environment/​2017/​jun/​01/​donald-trump-confirms-us-will-quit-paris-climate-deal. Last accessed 2 June 2017.)

As the Mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement for our people, our economy & future.

Bill Peduto, Mayor of Pittsburgh, later that same day (https://​twitter.​com/​billpeduto/​status/​8703702883446743​04. Last accessed 2 June 2017.)

End Abstract

1.1 Introduction

The preceding statements by American President Donald Trump and Bill Peduto, the Mayor of Pittsburgh, capture a theme that now pervades the study of global climate politics. The first is that nation-states (and elected leaders of nation-states) have a “solemn” right to defend their citizens from international agreements and “entanglements” that undermine their national economic and political interests. The second is that cities (and their elected representatives) have a right and responsibility to act on climate change.

Twenty years ago, the idea that a mayor and an elected head of state would be locking horns over their commitment to climate change would have seemed bizarre, to say the least. But in 2017, city leaders around the world are now speaking and acting in the name of the planet—as well as their citizens. According to ICLEI , one of the world’s largest transnational city-networks:

In the United States already, 78 city and state government entities, representing almost 28 million US citizens, are monitoring their emission reduction efforts through the carbonn Climate Registry. They are contributing to a global commitment to reduce emissions by more than one gigatonne of carbon-dioxide equivalent by 2030 — roughly the same amount pledged by the United States in its Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement.¹

In 2017, another city-network representing more than 80 of the world’s largest cities, “the C40 ”, responded to the US government’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement by issuing a petition (that was signed by more than 50 city mayors, including the mayors of Accra, Amman, Paris and Toronto), calling upon the G20 heads of state to deliver on their Paris commitments to tackle climate change:

As C40 mayors we will continue to lead on climate action in the most important cities of the world, standing for our people, the planet and global prosperity. Today, we seek to strengthen a pragmatic and positive alliance with you, in the service of our citizens. We look forward to working with you.²

Elsewhere, cities like Portland, Oslo, Medellín and Seoul are pursuing highly ambitious agendas for reducing emissions and vulnerability to climate change. According to the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA) , another repository of information that is operated and maintained by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (hereafter UNFCCC) , cities, sub-national governments, regions, investors, companies and civil society organizations accounted for a total of 11,615 climate change “commitments” in 2016.³

In the words of Seoul’s mayor, said Park Won-soon, “local governments are actually leading national governments. They are the driving force” (in the global fight against climate change).⁴

But how do we make sense of these “forces?” And what do they tell us about the contemporary nature of international power ?

For some (e.g. Tavares 2016; Barber 2013, 2017a), the growing prominence of cities in global climate politics suggests a fundamental transition from the old pattern of state-centric, multilateral governance that underlies the UNFCCC to a transnational, transformational arrangement that is rooted in the active involvement of sub- and non-state actors , including cities (e.g. Hale 2016). For others (e.g. Sassen 2015; Hickmann 2016; Gordon and Johnson 2017), the apparent transformation adds a layer of complexity and uncertainty to the study of global climate politics, suggesting the need for new theories and concepts that may be used to understand this process. For others, still (e.g. Davis 2016) the appearance of cities in global climate politics is but a temporary phenomenon that reflects the peculiarities of this particular moment in history.

Whether the “struggle” to craft an effective response to climate change becomes a zero-sum game of actions and reactions between cities and nation-states , the apparent rise of cities suggests a new set of norms and standards that are now being used to define what constitutes city leadership (Acuto 2013; Gordon and Acuto 2015; Acuto and Rayner 2016). Perhaps, the most powerful sentiment of this kind comes from the late Benjamin Barber , whose posthumous editorial in the Guardian newspaper captures the normative and political zeitgeist of contemporary city power:

Because urban citizens are the planet’s majority, their natural rights are endowed with democratic urgency. They carry the noble name of “citizen”, associated with the word “city”. But the aim is not to set urban against rural: it is to restore a more judicious balance between them. Today it is cities that look forward, speaking to global common goods, while fearful nations look back. (Barber 2017b)

Underlying Barber’s comments is a powerful assertion that protecting the global atmospheric commons is an essential part of what it means to exercise political authority, and that cities have a right and a responsibility to intervene in this regard.

However, much remains to be known about the long-term implications of city and city-network engagement in global climate politics. Are cities and transnational city-networks , for instance, driving a coherent agenda that will have a lasting effect on reducing emissions and vulnerability to climate change? Are they legitimate actors in global climate governance? Are they able to provide a meaningful alternative to the multilateral system of nation-states ? Above all, how does the growing involvement of cities and city-networks in global climate politics affect our understanding of international power ?

This book seeks to address these questions.

In doing so, it makes the case that cities have emerged as international actors in their own right, but that their agency has been framed and constrained by the ways in which national governments, multilateral institutions, transnational networks and multinational corporations constitute their behaviour. In what follows, I argue that the power of cities to act and effect change in global climate politics can be usefully framed in relation to four constellations of international power. The first is framed primarily in relation to the formal rules, norms and expectations that are created by states in the context international regimes, in this case, the UNFCCC . The second stems from the constellation of norms, knowledge, ideas and resources that manifest themselves in transnational city-networks. The third lies in the ability of cities to accumulate and attract the labour, resources and capital th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Frontmatter
• 1. Introduction: The Power of Cities in Global Climate Politics
• 2. Understanding the Power of Cities in Global Climate Politics: A Framework for Analysis
• 3. Cities as Saviours? The Global Politics of Urban Climate MitigationMitigation
• 4. Resilient Cities? The Global Politics of Urban Climate AdaptationAdaptation
• 5. Taking It to the Streets (and Beyond): The Power of Cities in Global Climate Politics
• Backmatter