Transforming Urban (Climate) Governance: What Do We Learn from Pro-actively Experimenting Cities?

Abstract

The notion of transformative climate governance in cities epitomises the urgency and opportunity for delivering bold action to address climate change and sustainability challenges. There is a risk to give into a somewhat naïve narrative of urban opportunities for delivering effective and transformative climate action when it is unclear how these opportunities can be harnessed in meaningful and just ways and over longer time frames. This chapter compares the capacities for transformative climate governance in Rotterdam and NYC to identify the emerging features of transformative climate governance, including how and by whom urban climate governance is driven and constrained, what governance conditions emerge as a result, and whether these conditions indeed enable transformative climate governance. It highlights four critical lessons that resonate both the conditions that fundamentally underpin transformative climate governance and that need further attention and investment to address existing capacity gaps and achieve effective change.