Place-based climate commissions: embracing messy governmentality

C. Howarth (), L. Edwards, A. Duncan, D. Horst and R. Pringle
Additional contact information
C. Howarth: London School of Economics and Political Science
L. Edwards: Durham University
A. Duncan: University of Leeds
D. Horst: University of Edinburgh
R. Pringle: CAG Consultants

Climatic Change, 2024, vol. 177, issue 12, No 7, 22 pages

Abstract: Abstract The role of the ‘place’ in delivering climate action is vital, however much action on climate change locally is fragmented. Independent place-based climate commissions are a novel structure of climate governance developing at the subnational level across cities, regions and counties in the UK. Little is known about these emerging forms of local climate governance and their experiences of navigating ‘mess’ in governance practices and processes. Building on Castán Broto’s framework of messy governmentalities, this paper seeks to assess the capacity of climate commissions to affect meaningful climate mitigation and adaptation action, to understand how they interact with existing climate governance structures and to consider their longer-term sustainability. This paper examines the nature and impact climate commissions have had on local climate action, drawing on qualitative interviews with chairs, commissioners, members of the secretariat and associated local authorities of the Edinburgh, Belfast, Leeds, Surrey, Yorkshire and Humber, and Lincoln commissions in the UK. Analysing the journeys of the commissions through a lens of messy governmentalities, and a focus on bodies, strategies and knowledges within them, we draw out insights on how climate commissions came about, their function and role, their impact and influence, and how they have evolved.

Keywords: Climate commission; Climate governance; Messy governmentality; Climate action; Place (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-024-03828-w Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:climat:v:177:y:2024:i:12:d:10.1007_s10584-024-03828-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10584

DOI: 10.1007/s10584-024-03828-w

Access Statistics for this article

Climatic Change is currently edited by M. Oppenheimer and G. Yohe

More articles in Climatic Change from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().