Interkommunale Klima-Governance in Frankreich und Deutschland
In light of the stalled international climate negotiations and modest success of national greenhouse-gas emission reduction programs, huge hopes and growing attention have concentrated on climate policy at the regional and local level. Especially urban regions constitute an alternative starting point for climate policy for they harbour major emissions as well as possible savings. Using this back door for progress on mitigation requires scaling up local climate action from pioneer examples to widespread policy.
However, municipalities experience serious hindrances in taking up best practise examples or advancing existing climate plans. Problems are linked to restrictions in terms of human and financial resources, expertise, and responsibilities. Up-scaling strategies thus need to reconcile municipal proximity and planning capacities.
The dissertation project argues that intercommunal structures could play an important role as they pool municipal resources and responsibilities but remain understudied in local climate policy analysis. Many intercommunal structures voluntarily or mandatorily act on climate mitigation and are members of municipal networks such as the Covenant of Mayors.
Building on a multi-level governance framework and organizational theory, the dissertation project explores why intercommunal structures engage in climate mitigation, how they do it, and what difference it makes for climate governance architecture. To this end, an embedded multiple case study compares Greater Stuttgart Region and Metropolitan Region Rhine-Neckar from Germany, and Greater Lyon, Rennes Metropolis, and the Community of Communes of Val d’Ille from France.