The role of network participation in climate change mitigation: a city-level analysis

ABSTRACT

Cities and networks play an important role in climate change mitigation. Various international, regional, and local networks seek to increase cooperation between cities or between cities and other stakeholders. However, we still have a poor understanding of how these formalised networks help cities to mitigate climate change at different levels of urban climate governance. Here, I analyse experiences of participation in formal climate change mitigation-related networks from the global to the local level in three European capital cities: Helsinki, Madrid, and Stockholm. As multilevel networking is a strategic tool for cities, different benefits are highlighted at different levels of governance. Some networks are more oriented towards politics and planning, while others are more practical. Formalised networking is also networking between individual people, which should be studied further. The results demonstrate both the advantages of networks and challenges in developing beneficial networking to support climate change mitigation.

KEYWORDS:

• Cities
• networks
• climate change mitigation
• urban climate governance
• multilevel networking

Data availability statement

The anonymised transcriptions of the interviews are available for research purposes upon request. Please contact the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Another option could be coercion, but often it is not a possibility for subnational actors like cities.

2. I have translated the citations from Helsinki and Madrid presented in Results and discussion. For the original transcriptions, please see the supplement, section 3.

3. At the time, Stockholm held the vice-presidency of the network.

4. For example, the city officials told size of the city was one reason why C40 did not accept the application of Helsinki.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Koneen Säätiö [090022]; Tiina and Antti Herlin Foundation [20170005].

Notes on contributors

Milja Heikkinen

Milja Heikkinen is a doctoral researcher working in the Urban Environmental Policy research group, University of Helsinki, and a research fellow in the Earth System Governance project. In her doctoral research, she has studied the role of formalised networks in urban climate change mitigation and adaptation. Currently, she is also working for a project “Justice in climate policy” of the Finnish Climate Change Panel. She holds MSc in Environmental Science and Policy and BA in Spanish Philology, both from the University of Helsinki.