Local climate governance and the role of cooperatives

Abstract

Global climate change and its consequences have led to a wide-ranging re-evaluation process in political and business circles. Two prominent reports––the Stern Review from 2006 and the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007)––underscore the fact that the impact of global warming can no longer be contained at an acceptable level unless emissions are reduced dramatically. Hence, the pressure to act is quite high: comprehensive technical, political and societal innovations have to be implemented within a very short timeframe at global, regional and local levels. But this can only happen if a fundamental re-orientation also takes place within society. At the same time, and due to recent economic crises, sustainable forms of entrepreneurship have returned to the public agenda. One promising form of sustainable social and economic organisation is the cooperative (Genossenschaft): for their members, cooperatives represent an opportunity to shape their local communities and environments while sharing resources, knowledge and economic power to their benefit. With a rising number of new cooperatives in the sectors of energy/water, housing/construction, consumption and mobility explicitly referring to climate protection, climate-related activities, in turn, have the potential to inject new life into the cooperative movement and to provide innovative, collective approaches to local climate governance. This following article analyses and discusses the current and potential future roles of cooperatives in the development of local, climate-friendly governance strategies. After a short description of the concept of local climate governance and an introductory definition of cooperatives, the authors will outline research gaps in both fields, and finish with some thoughts on the future role of cooperatives. In addition, the authors aim to make a substantial contribution to discussions about the importance of the role of bottom-up strategies in the transition towards a climate-friendly society.