Transnational city networks, global political economy, and climate governance: C40 in Mexico and Lima

Abstract

Most research on transnational city networks on climate change focuses on how they form part of a reorganization of the character of global politics away from state-centric forms of governance towards either multilevel, transnational and/or ‘polycentric’ governance. Consistent with these broad approaches to global (climate) governance, work specifically on city networks focuses on their abilities to generate coordination, learning and experimentation across and within cities regarding climate change. This article argues that analyzing these networks within political economy frameworks generates different but important additional insights. Drawing on the analysis of two cities in Latin America—Mexico City and Lima—within the C40 network, the article argues that C40 promotes particular forms of investment in its member cities, pursuing the interests of transnational capital and assembling combinations of actors to generate this effect. While such a dynamic within C40 may promote decarbonization, it nevertheless skews the process of responding to climate change in those cities. It does so by coercing those cities to prioritize climate mitigation rather than adaptation, over-riding local preferences, and, ignoring local expertise. As a result, C40 undermines the capacity for such cities to generate their own solutions.

Keywords:

• Transnational governance
• International Political Economy
• city networks
• climate governance
• Latin America
• Transnational Capitalist Class

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Elsewhere, Carroll and Sapinski (2010) refer to these as ‘transnational policy-planning boards’. We use Carroll’s term from his book in this article, although they are largely interchangeable.

2 Counterhegemony is the standard term here in neo-Gramscian analysis, but it would require more evidence than we can provide on the basis of the research carried out, to demonstrate that the resistance to C40 initiatives, in particular in Lima, can be understood as counterhegemonic, properly speaking.

3 See the Regional Autonomy Index for details Shair-Rosenfield et al. (2021). In 2003 (the first year there is a score for Lima), Lima’s score in this index was 10, in 2018 it was 12. For Mexico City, data goes back to 1950 when the score was 5.5. In 2003 it was 13.5 and in 2018 after the constitutional reform, it was 18.5. The median score in the whole dataset (i.e. all regions and countries) is 9.

4 The megacity category includes cities with a population of 3 million or more, and/or metropolitan area population of 10 million or more, either currently or projected for 2025. Also, the category could include cities with one of the top 25 global cities, ranked by current GDP output, at purchasing power parity (PPP), either currently or projected for 2025. See more in C40 (2012).

5 BYD is a Chinese manufacturer of automobiles, battery-powered bicycles, buses, forklifts, rechargeable batteries, and trucks. The company was founded in 1995. Its corporate headquarters are in the city of Shenzhen, and it has two major subsidiaries, BYD Automobile, and BYD Electronic. The former’s principal activity is the design, development, manufacture and distribution of automobiles, buses, electric bicycles, forklifts, rechargeable batteries and trucks sold under the BYD brand. The latter makes handset components and assembles mobile phones for its customers, including Nokia and Motorola (see BYD, 2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

José Manuel Leal

José Manuel Leal is Professor of International Relations at UNIVA. His research focuses on Transnational Climate Change Governance, Political Economy and Public Policies of Climate Change. He has collaborated in research projects with the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) from the United Nations, and the Latin American Union of Municipalities (UIM). His professional experience also includes the design and coordination of environmental cooperation projects, academic collaborations, developed during his time as International Cooperation Coordinator at the Foreign Affairs Office from the State of Jalisco, Mexico.

Matthew Paterson

Matthew Paterson is Professor of International Politics at the University of Manchester and Director of the Sustainable Consumption Institute. His research focuses on the political economy, global governance, and cultural politics of climate change. His latest book is In Search of Climate Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and previous publications includeGlobal Warming and Global Politics (1996), Automobile Politics (2007), Climate Capitalism: global warming and the transformation of the global economy (with Peter Newell, 2010), and Transnational Climate Change Governance (with Harriet Bulkeley and 8 others, Cambridge University Press 2014).