I presented the first early findings from the research conducted in the Dutch Randstad at the 2014 RSA Global Conference in Fortaleza, Brazil. In my talk, I argued that the administrative system and national institutional characteristics are fundamentally important factors determining how cities and urban regions address climate change challenge. At the same time, I demonstrated, drawing on the Randstad case, that implementation of climate change policies does have important feedback effects on the patterns of governance in the urban regions, namely in terms of increasing cross-level and cross-sectoral collaboration observed. However, these changes should also be understood as part of a wider trend of transformation of the state and paradigm shift towards decentralisation and withdrawal of the state to share the responsibility for public policy delivery with the citizens (local authorities), business and other non-state actors. This trend has recently been exacerbated by the austerity measures resulting from the global economic crisis. Thus, climate change policies are not the root cause of these shifts in governance, but are no doubt a catalyst for them. Finally, I stressed the numerous and sometimes paradoxical obsctacles and bottlenecks for climate change governance in the Randstad stemming from the institutional legacies and conflicting ideas and interests. For more details please see the presentation below.
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AuthorMarcin Dąbrowski, Researcher at TU Delft Categories |