The new Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy and the politics of municipal climate data

Friederike Gesing ()
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Friederike Gesing: ZentraClim: Climate Change and Transnational Policy, University of Bremen, Sustainability Research Center (artec)

No 71 / 2017, ZenTra Working Papers in Transnational Studies from ZenTra - Center for Transnational Studies

Abstract: This paper provides a qualitative empirical analysis of the emergence of a new transnational municipal initiative, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, launched on January 1st 2017. This new initiative is the result of a merger of two previously existing networks, the Compact of Mayors founded in 2014 by a coalition of city networks under the leadership of UN Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change Michael R. Bloomberg, and the Covenant of Mayors founded by the European Commission in 2008. While both these initiatives have been actively engaged in strengthening the role of cities and regions in the transnational climate policy arena, they have subscribed to different rhetoric and political strategies. The paper analyses the disparate logics of municipal climate action characteristic of the two initiatives, evident in the ongoing negotiations over the design of the common Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy. The paper draws on ethnographic evidence, interviews and documents to shed light on struggles over the politics of municipal climate data, focusing on disagreement about the role of common targets and tools, and the role of emission data for private investors

Keywords: Transnational climate policy; municipal climate policy; transnational municipal networks (TMN); climate governance; climate data; data politics; data practices; comparability; city networks; public/private; GHG emissions reporting; Compact of Mayors; Covenant of Mayors; EU climate policy; multi-level governance; climate justice; climate finance; Science and Technology Studies (STS); qualitative environmental research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2017-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-ene and nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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