Climate Policy: Addressing Climate Change from the Global to Municipal Scale

Introduction

Since the threat of climate change was first realized in the 1980s, policy has been the critical tool to address the climate crisis. What makes policy so effective? How has it changed over time? Should it be implemented by national governments, or in individual cities? We reviewed the evolution of climate policy at the global and municipal scales to investigate.

The Evolution of Climate Policy

At the global scale, there has been significant evolution in policy over the past four decades. Early agreements, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, focused on mitigating climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (United Nations, 1992). These policies employed a top-down approach, in which all participating nations committed to certain targets (Sabel and Victor, 2017). In the late 1990s, the scientific community emphasized that, even with mitigation measures, some degree of climate warming would be inevitable (IPCC, 1966). This spurred the development of adaptation policies, such as the COP16 Adaptation Framework, which seek to minimize susceptibility to future climate impacts (United Nations, 2010). Figure 1 shows the major events in the evolution of climate policy since the 1980s.

Figure 1: Timeline of selected global climate policy events since the 1980s.

Modern Climate Policy: What is the Best Approach?

The issue with traditional ‘top-down’ climate policies is that it is difficult to achieve successful negotiations between many nations. For example—why should a developing country have to reduce its emissions if developed countries were not limited during their economic growth? This raises practical issues which have resulted in diplomatic gridlock during recent climate negotiations (Sabel and Victor, 2017). As a result, there has been a shift toward the ‘building-blocks’ structure, a method that seeks to implement policies at the smallest possible scale (Rayner, 2010). This brings cities to the forefront of climate change, as they are uniquely positioned to use an integrated approach that includes mitigation of GHG emissions and adaptation to climate impacts.

Climate Policy in Cities

The evolution of global climate policy shows us that cities are leading the charge to address climate change. Vancouver, Canada is a great example—the city has both a mitigation policy, the Climate Emergency Action Plan, and a Climate Change Adaptation plan (City of Vancouver, 2020). This integrated approach has been highly successful, reducing GHG emissions by 18% per capita from 2010-2020 through a low-carbon building code, an extensive bike lane network, and the planting of 150,000 trees (City of Vancouver, 2015). The city has adapted to climate change by mandating flood-resistant construction materials, conducting disaster risk-mapping, and relocating homes susceptible to climate hazards (OECD, 2018).

What is responsible for the success of these policies? Research indicates that a number of socioeconomic factors, including the independence of a municipal government from provincial authorities, participation in international networks such as Cities for Climate Protection, and co-benefits of climate policies, such as financial savings, can promote the development of climate policy in cities (Rashidi and Patt, 2017; Kousky and Schneider, 2003).

Conclusion

Climate policy has evolved significantly from the 1980s, shifting the focus from the global to the local scale. Now more than ever, cities are equipped to tackle climate change by mitigating GHG emissions and adapting to future climate impacts. Our review indicates that these policies are most successful when they integrate both mitigation and adaptation, and recognize the importance of socioeconomic factors which drive policy development.

References

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