Mitigating Global Warming in Global Cities: Comparing Participation and Climate Change Policies of C40 Cities

Abstract

Cities face similar challenges to nation-states in coming together for climate change agreements. Cities have joined trans-municipal networks to overcome these collective action problems that provide common problem definitions, policy solutions, formal channels of communication, and publicity. Analyzing the relationship between participation in a network and cities’ mitigation policies in 57 C40 member cities using ordered logit models, the article asks what effect group membership has on actual climate change mitigation actions at the city level. The results speak to the growing importance of transnational institutions in providing assistance and visibility to subnational efforts to address international issues.

Keywords:

• urban mitigation policy
• global city
• C40
• Translocal Climate Network
• Cities for Climate Protection

Acknowledgment

This paper is a result of the workshop on Domestic and Intra-Nations Environmental Policies: Comparative Approaches, University of Sydney in June 2012. This research was supported by Yonsei University New Faculty Research Grant.

Notes

^1. C40 member cities included in the analysis are listed as follow: Addis Ababa, Amsterdam, Athens, Austin, Bangkok, Barcelona, Basel, Beijing, Berlin, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Caracas, Changwon, Chicago, Copenhagen, Curitiba, Delhi, Dhaka, Hanoi, Heidelberg, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Houston, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Lagos, Lima, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Mumbai, Moscow, Mumbai, New Orleans, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Portland, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Rotterdam, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Seoul, Shanghai, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Warsaw, and Yokohama.

^2. All independent variables in the analysis are measured prior to the dependent variable to deal with temporal endogeneity problems.

^3. Membership in the CCP may be endogenous in that characteristics of cities that joined CCP are not random. To test for endogeneity of the CCP membership variable, we implement the Dublin–Wu–Hausman test using robust variance estimates (see more detail in Cameron and Trivede 2010). The test output suggests that CCP membership is not endogenous.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Taedong Lee

Taedong Lee is assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations in Yonsei University, Seoul. His areas of research include global and subnational environmental politics and policy, NGO politics, international political economy and social network analysis. His articles have appeared in journals including Policy Sciences, Voluntas, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Review of Policy Research, Journal of Cleaner Production, Policy Studies Journal, and Global Environmental Politics.

Chris Koski

Chris Koski is assistant professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies at Reed College in Portland, OR. He currently researches city-level mitigation and adaptation responses to climate change.