Who influences a city’s climate policy? Evidence from Germany and England

Peter Lang
Sep 6, 2018 · 3 min read
Turbine Blade Convoy for Scout Moor Wind Farm passing through Edenfield. Paul Anderson, via Wikimedia Commons

by Peter Eckersley, author of Power and Capacity in Urban Climate Governance: Germany and England Compared


Climate change is a notoriously difficult issue for policy-makers to address. A key reason for this is that a whole range of human activities contribute towards it, and therefore a variety of different actors (government bodies at all levels, businesses and private citizens) need to change their behaviour in order to deal with it effectively. Essentially, these actors are all responsible in some way for implementing climate change policy; governments (whether at the local, regional, national or global level) do not have the capacity to mitigate or adapt to climate change without their support.

This means that public officials need to work with businesses, non-governmental organisations and citizens to develop policies that are both realistic and effective. However, if these non-state actors exercise too much influence over governments, this could mean that policies are not ambitious enough to address climate change properly, and/or it may raise concerns about democratic accountability. Taking this further, we can see how a municipality’s capacity to achieve its objectives is probably lower than that of a national government, because it will have less money, fewer staff and limited legal powers. We can also argue that lower levels of capacity within government bodies results in weaker institutions, and can mean that non-state actors exert more influence over policy-making and implementation.

My forthcoming book with Peter Lang, Power and Capacity in Urban Climate Governance: Germany and England Compared, shows how the English municipality of Newcastle upon Tyne was much weaker than its counterpart in Gelsenkirchen. Since it received fewer resources in the form of funding, advice, personnel, and legal and political support from higher levels of government, it had much less capacity than Gelsenkirchen Council to act independently of other local actors in climate policymaking and implementation. As a result, Newcastle Council had to depend much more on the local university, businesses and voluntary groups, and ultimately held less sway over how the city sought to address the issue, when compared to Gelsenkirchen.

The very nature of issues such as climate change mean that public bodies need to work with private and voluntary organisations to implement policy effectively. Democratic governments cannot simply pass radical legislation without consultation and expect businesses and citizens to comply with it. Nonetheless, in order to ensure that climate change initiatives are sufficiently ambitious and decision-makers are democratically accountable, government bodies need to have the capacity and authority to take the lead.

My book shows that German municipalities have this capacity, because they receive substantial resources from higher levels of government. However, if this support is not forthcoming, as is the case in England, then the local council has to seek out additional resources from elsewhere in order to achieve its objectives. This could result in private sector actors gaining too much influence over decision-making, which might ‘dilute’ the resulting policies and mean that they do not address the issue effectively.

Peter Eckersley is author of Power and Capacity in Urban Climate Governance: Germany and England Compared, out now.

Peter Lang Publishing Blog

Peter Lang specializes in the Humanities and Social Sciences, covering the complete publication spectrum from monographs to student textbooks.

Peter Lang

Written by

Peter Lang specializes in the Humanities and Social Sciences, covering the complete publication spectrum from monographs to student textbooks.

Peter Lang Publishing Blog

Peter Lang specializes in the Humanities and Social Sciences, covering the complete publication spectrum from monographs to student textbooks.

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