■ 125

The Role of Institutions,

Governance, and Urban Planning

for Mitigation and Adaptation

Harriet Bulkeley, Heike Schroeder, Katy Janda, Jimin Zhao,

Andrea Armstrong, Shu Yi Chu, and Shibani Ghosh

Introduction

Two major waves of activities may be discerned in municipal action on climate
change since the 1990s. Th e fi rst involves individual cities and transnational
municipal networks, such as ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection (CCP), Cli-
mate Alliance, and Energy Cities, which started to mobilize action for reducing
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Kern and Bulkeley 2009). For the most part,
national governments and the emerging international regime for governing cli-
mate change showed little interest in these activities (Bulkeley and Betsill 2003;
for an exception, see Sugiyama and Takeuchi 2008, 425). It was dominated by a
few pioneer cities, predominantly in North America and Europe, and it focused
on mitigation (Bulkeley and Betsill 2003; Bulkeley and Kern 2006; Alber and
Kern 2008). Th e second wave is more recent, where transnational municipal
networks have grown and multiplied and a more geographically diverse range
has emerged. Th e emergence of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and
the Rockefeller Foundation Climate Change Initiative, together with the con-
tinued work of ICLEI, is leading to increasing involvement of global and mega-
cities in the urban climate change agenda. At the same time, the predominant
focus on mitigation is giving way to the emergence of municipal climate policy
in which both mitigation and adaptation are considered signifi cant.
Th e research and evidence base is lagging behind this new trend. Th e earliest
work on local climate policy and governance was conducted in the mid-1990s

5