Local leadership in climate change policies

Abstract

The article studies differences in political leadership in local government in Norway and in Poland and how they might contribute to differences in local climate policy – adaptation as well as mitigation. Based on the literature of different political leadership models in Europe, we ask how the different political leadership traditions affect active leadership in policies related to climate change. This is answered by analyzing nation-wide surveys to municipalities in Norway and Poland. The results confirm our basic assumption about the differences in leadership between Norway and Poland as being related to differing political models on the local level. Although other factors also explain variations, the findings illustrate the potential of the models in explaining the role of leadership in new policy fields – as with climate-change policies.