Local Government and the Governing of Climate Change in Germany and the UK

This paper argues that, in order to address the challenges of climate change, attention needs to be focused not only at the international level but also on how climate protection policy is taking shape locally. It provides a comparative analysis of local climate change policy in Germany and the UK. By moving the focus from an analysis of the formal competencies of local government to the multiple modes of governing through which climate protection is taking place, the similarities between the two countries are brought into view. In both cases, actions are concentrated in the energy sphere and municipalities are increasingly deploying self-governing and enabling approaches to undertaken emissions reductions.…