TY - JOUR
T1 - Urban Carbon Governance Experiments
T2 - The Role of Australian Local Governments
AU - Mcguirk, Pauline
AU - Dowling, Robyn
AU - Brennan, Clare
AU - Bulkeley, Harriet
PY - 2015/2/1
Y1 - 2015/2/1
N2 - Cities, and particularly urban local governments, are now widely recognised for their part in the complex, multilevel landscape of climate governance and carbon reduction. Nonetheless local government projects and initiatives are often framed as of limited value, outside the formal governance framework, and unable to contribute systematically. In contrast, this paper locates these initiatives as already part of the way in which governing climate and carbon is conducted and as governance experiments. We provide a descriptive analysis of these initiatives across Australia's capital cities, highlighting the domains, mechanisms, and partners through which they operate. We illustrate the enactment of experimentation through a detailed examination of the Sydney-based initiative termed Treading Lightly, drawing out in particular the workings of institutional experimentation and experimentation in governance practices. We conclude with brief reflections on the governance implications of such experimentation and their importance as a site in the emergent politics of urban carbon governance.
AB - Cities, and particularly urban local governments, are now widely recognised for their part in the complex, multilevel landscape of climate governance and carbon reduction. Nonetheless local government projects and initiatives are often framed as of limited value, outside the formal governance framework, and unable to contribute systematically. In contrast, this paper locates these initiatives as already part of the way in which governing climate and carbon is conducted and as governance experiments. We provide a descriptive analysis of these initiatives across Australia's capital cities, highlighting the domains, mechanisms, and partners through which they operate. We illustrate the enactment of experimentation through a detailed examination of the Sydney-based initiative termed Treading Lightly, drawing out in particular the workings of institutional experimentation and experimentation in governance practices. We conclude with brief reflections on the governance implications of such experimentation and their importance as a site in the emergent politics of urban carbon governance.
KW - Australia
KW - Cities and climate change
KW - Experimentation
KW - Local government
KW - Urban carbon governance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84924200981&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1745-5871.12098
DO - 10.1111/1745-5871.12098
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84924200981
SN - 1745-5863
VL - 53
SP - 39
EP - 52
JO - Geographical Research
JF - Geographical Research
IS - 1
ER -