IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v34y2016i3p529-545.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lament for a network? Cities and networked climate governance in Canada

Author

Listed:
  • David J. Gordon

Abstract

There is substantial evidence that the global governance of climate change must pass through cities. While formal networks offer cities a means of generating effects that extend beyond their own borders, it remains unclear as to whether such networks can address collective action barriers and implementation gaps. City-networks, after all, are limited in their efforts to govern and must rely on information, service provision, and soft forms of coercion if they are to steer their members past these considerable challenges. This article contributes to extant efforts to assess their ability to do so by addressing two gaps in the literature. First, the article focuses on the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP), a city-network that has received little attention to date. Second, through analysis of two Canadian cities (Toronto and Winnipeg), the article provides an empirical illustration of the limitations of network authority and influence, and offers some thoughts on what this means for networked urban climate governance in Canada and beyond.

Suggested Citation

  • David J. Gordon, 2016. "Lament for a network? Cities and networked climate governance in Canada," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(3), pages 529-545, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:34:y:2016:i:3:p:529-545
    DOI: 10.1177/0263774X15614675
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0263774X15614675
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0263774X15614675?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kathryn Harrison, 2007. "The Road not Taken: Climate Change Policy in Canada and the United States," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 7(4), pages 92-117, November.
    2. Carpenter, R. Charli, 2011. "Vetting the Advocacy Agenda: Network Centrality and the Paradox of Weapons Norms," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(1), pages 69-102, January.
    3. Kathryn Harrison, 2012. "A Tale of Two Taxes: The Fate of Environmental Tax Reform in Canada," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 29(3), pages 383-407, May.
    4. Kristine Kern & Harriet Bulkeley, 2009. "Cities, Europeanization and Multi‐level Governance: Governing Climate Change through Transnational Municipal Networks," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 309-332, March.
    5. Sammy Zahran & Samuel D Brody & Arnold Vedlitz & Himanshu Grover & Caitlyn Miller, 2008. "Vulnerability and Capacity: Explaining Local Commitment to Climate-Change Policy," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 26(3), pages 544-562, June.
    6. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:309-332 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Carolyn Kousky & Stephen H. Schneider, 2003. "Global climate policy: will cities lead the way?," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(4), pages 359-372, December.
    8. Checkel, Jeffrey T., 2001. "Why Comply? Social Learning and European Identity Change," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(3), pages 553-588, July.
    9. Christopher D. Gore, 2010. "The Limits and Opportunities of Networks: Municipalities and Canadian Climate Change Policy," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 27(1), pages 27-46, January.
    10. Hoffmann, Matthew J., 2011. "Climate Governance at the Crossroads: Experimenting with a Global Response after Kyoto," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195390087.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Taedong Lee & Chris Koski, 2015. "Multilevel governance and urban climate change mitigation," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 33(6), pages 1501-1517, December.
    2. Pamela Robinson & Christopher Gore, 2015. "Municipal climate reporting: gaps in monitoring and implications for governance and action," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 33(5), pages 1058-1075, October.
    3. Taedong Lee & Chris Koski, 2012. "Building Green: Local Political Leadership Addressing Climate Change," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 29(5), pages 605-624, September.
    4. Thomas Hickmann, 2021. "Locating Cities and Their Governments in Multi-Level Sustainability Governance," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(1), pages 211-220.
    5. Vanesa Castán Broto & Linda K. Westman, 2020. "Ten years after Copenhagen: Reimagining climate change governance in urban areas," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), July.
    6. Antje Otto & Kristine Kern & Wolfgang Haupt & Peter Eckersley & Annegret H. Thieken, 2021. "Ranking local climate policy: assessing the mitigation and adaptation activities of 104 German cities," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 1-23, July.
    7. Kristine Kern & Janne Irmisch & Colette Odermatt & Wolfgang Haupt & Ingrid Kissling-Näf, 2021. "Cultural Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Climate Policy: Comparing the UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Potsdam and Bern," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-19, August.
    8. Oliver Westerwinter, 2021. "Transnational public-private governance initiatives in world politics: Introducing a new dataset," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 137-174, January.
    9. Jennifer S. Bansard & Philipp H. Pattberg & Oscar Widerberg, 2017. "Cities to the rescue? Assessing the performance of transnational municipal networks in global climate governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 229-246, April.
    10. Haupt, Wolfgang & Eckersley, Peter & Kern, Kristine, 2021. "Transfer und Skalierung von lokaler Klimapolitik: Konzeptionelle Ansätze, Voraussetzungen und Potenziale," IRS Dialog 1/2021, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS).
    11. Anne Bach Nielsen & Marielle Papin, 2021. "The hybrid governance of environmental transnational municipal networks: Lessons from 100 Resilient Cities," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(4), pages 667-685, June.
    12. Iris Hui & Gemma Smith & Caroline Kimmel, 2019. "Think globally, act locally: adoption of climate action plans in California," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 155(4), pages 489-509, August.
    13. Damsø, Tue & Kjær, Tyge & Christensen, Thomas Budde, 2016. "Local climate action plans in climate change mitigation – examining the case of Denmark," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 74-83.
    14. Kern, Kristine & Irmisch, Janne & Odermatt, Colette & Haupt, Wolfgang & Kissling-Näf, Ingrid, 2021. "Cultural Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Climate Policy: Comparing the UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Potsdam and Bern," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 13(16).
    15. Neslihan Kulozu Uzunboy, 2020. "Effect of transnational climate networks on climate experiments: the Nilüfer Municipality, a case from Turkey," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 3005-3031, April.
    16. Jose Antonio Puppim de Oliveira, 2011. "Why an Air Pollution Achiever Lags on Climate Policy? The Case of Local Policy Implementation in Mie, Japan," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(8), pages 1894-1909, August.
    17. Joana Setzer & Rachel Biderman, 2013. "Increasing Participation in Climate Policy Implementation: A Case for Engaging SMEs from the Transport Sector in the City of São Paulo," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 31(5), pages 806-821, October.
    18. Castán Broto, Vanesa, 2017. "Urban Governance and the Politics of Climate change," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 1-15.
    19. Marielle Papin, 2019. "Transnational municipal networks: Harbingers of innovation for global adaptation governance?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 467-483, October.
    20. Ann W Foss & Jeff Howard, 2015. "The other end of the spectrum: municipal climate change mitigation planning in the politically conservative Dallas–Fort Worth region," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 33(6), pages 1412-1431, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:34:y:2016:i:3:p:529-545. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.