As cities and national governments cannot act alone to effectively tackle climate change, a framework for understanding the linkages across multiple levels of government and with the private sector and non-governmental stakeholders is needed. Chapter 6 proposes a multi-level governance framework that explores these linkages between national, regional and local policies to address climate change. Such a framework identifies vertical governance between different levels of government, as well as horizontal governance across multiple sectors at the same level of government, including engagement with non-governmental actors, and governance across and between cities or territories. It lays out a framework to explore, “what is good practice?” in the area of multi-level governance and climate change, laying out a number of sub-themes and questions for investigation in Part III of the book.

Each stage of the local policy-making process presents an opportunity to incorporate climate change priorities, agenda setting, policy design, implementation and policy evaluation. Chapter 7 discusses these opportunities and the issues for horizontal co-ordination that they raise. Co-ordination across city departments as well as across municipalities in the same metropolitan region is needed to implement climate policies in a cross-sectoral manner. Co-ordination among cities and surrounding municipalities is especially crucial given that many urban initiatives to mitigate and adapt to climate change require changes that are broader than just one city’s jurisdiction. While some municipal governments have led the way to co-ordinate climate change action at the metropolitan regional level, greater incentives and more effective co-ordination mechanisms are needed. Regional initiatives can have a broader impact on climate priorities given their scale and potentially greater access to funding and technical expertise.

Chapter 8 reviews the vertical dimension of climate governance, focusing on local-national interactions and co-ordination in the development of climate policy. Multi-level governance is a critical issue for national governments, the large majority of which have agreed to work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to inevitable climate change. A key issue for national policy makers is what they can do to empower cities to become more effective in the design and implementation of policies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change and to take advantage of the opportunities to learn from city-scale experimentation and action. These include policies driven from the top by national or regional governments as well as from the bottom by local policy approaches and innovations that may subsequently be scaled up to regional or national responses. A hybrid of the two frameworks provides top-down incentives and guidance while leaving room for city-level leadership and innovation. Partnerships with the private sector are shown to be an important feature in hybrid frameworks. Climate priorities also call on national governments to integrate mitigation and adaptation goals into national regional development policy frameworks, although only a few countries can provide successful models for climate-sensitive regional development policy.

Measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to expected climate change impacts will put additional pressure on city budgets and increase the need for additional public resources. Chapter 9 discusses opportunities to reform existing sub-national and national revenue sources as well as new forms of financing for urban climate change initiatives. A number of existing fiscal instruments and incentives are already at cities’ disposal, including taxes, fees and grants, and these could be considered as instruments for achieving climate change and urban sustainability goals. Carbon markets and access to financial capital may emerge as promising new funding sources, particularly if national and international policy makers decide to adapt them to better accommodate the multi-sectoral nature of many urban mitigation projects.

Looking ahead, new or reformed institutions are needed to enable national governments to facilitate capacity building and decision-making on climate change at the local level. Chapter 10 reviews key institutional priorities for greater engagement of local decision makers, the private sector and civil society stakeholders in developing local knowledge to address climate change. City authorities are in a unique position to effectively engage local stakeholders and to design and implement locally tailored responses to climate change. Key institutional shifts could include the development of a number of tools to support local decision-making. These could include standardised greenhouse gas emission inventory and reporting protocols to allow cities to monitor progress in reducing emissions in a way that is harmonised and comparable with other cities and national approaches. This is an important first step to enable cities to better access and participate in international carbon markets and to raise the visibility and credibility of urban mitigation efforts at national and international levels. In addition, regional science and policy networks can be strengthened to allow for expert climate information and local knowledge to combine to better understand how climate change will affect local areas as well as local opportunities for mitigation. Finally, strengthening urban climate policy networks may be a means to provide a forum for information exchange among city practitioners and other stakeholders, and to establish a common understanding about targets, implementation strategies and monitoring.