Strategies and Governance for Implementing Deep Decarbonization Plans at the Local Level
1
School of Environment, Enterprise & Development, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
2
Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON M1C 1A4, Canada
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2021, 13(1), 154; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010154
Received: 30 November 2020 / Revised: 22 December 2020 / Accepted: 22 December 2020 / Published: 25 December 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change Mitigation and Urban Sustainable Development)
This study qualitatively explores eight cases of best practice cities that are leading the way towards deep decarbonization. Local governments and stakeholders are developing short-term strategies and long-term pathways towards deep decarbonization at the local level but are struggling to determine effective actions. In this article, we examine cities pursuing deep decarbonization to provide insights into the strategies and governance structures that eight leading local governments are using to develop and implement deep decarbonization plans. The cases are in Canada (Bridgewater, Guelph, Vancouver and Toronto), the USA (Park City and New York City), Finland (Lahti), and Norway (Oslo) and range from very small (8.4 thousand people) to very large (9.6 million people). For each city, their implementation strategies are detailed under four categories: engagement; green economy; policy tools; and financial tools. Governance mechanisms and modes are explained regarding coordination; oversight and reporting; communication; multi-level integration; cross-sector collaboration; funding, and mode. While a number of these approaches and tools have been identified in previous research and grey literature, the findings show that leading local government plans continue to develop innovative strategies on their own and also share their successes with other communities through transnational networks. The cases examined in this study are moving beyond the incremental approach to mitigating greenhouse gases and are innovating to find applied methods for achieving transformative change. The findings from this study are useful for practitioners and academics working on climate mitigation, strategy implementation, cross-sector partnerships, and sustainable cities.
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Keywords:
climate change; deep decarbonization; cities; cross-sector partnership; climate mitigation; net-zero; carbon neutral; SDG 11; SDG 13
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Linton, S.; Clarke, A.; Tozer, L. Strategies and Governance for Implementing Deep Decarbonization Plans at the Local Level. Sustainability 2021, 13, 154. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010154
AMA Style
Linton S, Clarke A, Tozer L. Strategies and Governance for Implementing Deep Decarbonization Plans at the Local Level. Sustainability. 2021; 13(1):154. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010154
Chicago/Turabian StyleLinton, Samantha; Clarke, Amelia; Tozer, Laura. 2021. "Strategies and Governance for Implementing Deep Decarbonization Plans at the Local Level" Sustainability 13, no. 1: 154. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010154
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