EPILOGUE ■ 263- What roles do nonstate and other stakeholders play in the governance
process? - What factors have enabled local institutions to become early adopters of cli-
mate change mitigation and adaptation strategies? - What are the major institutional barriers to successful climate change miti-
gation and adaptation in cities? - How can we improve upon institutional capacity to enhance preparedness to
the impacts of climatic change?
Numerous important themes emerge from the discussion of urban climate
change and governance. First is the analysis of factors that motivate cities to act
and their willingness to make explicit commitments to build climate resilient
cities. We have observed that the discourse on the urban impacts of climate
change has been historically led by municipalities and municipal networks,
associations, and organizations such as the Mayor’s Climate Summit, ICLEI,
C40 Cities, and the Climate Alliance. Recently, other regional initiatives and
multilateral organizations have joined the discussions.
Th e growing role of city governments in climate change can best be attrib-
uted to the following major factors: national mandates for cities to shoulder
climate targets, lack of leadership on the part of some national governments,
the willingness of some cities to participate on global issues without making
serious commitments, expectations of new technology and funding related to
climate initiatives, and new business prospects for local economies. Moreover,
it is not uncommon for cities, oft en in developing countries, to make climate
mitigation commitments without developing a clear idea of the ramifi cations
for policy and implementation.
For these reasons, local knowledge, capacity, and governance are impor-
tant for achieving successful adaptation and mitigation approaches. Carmin,
Roberts, and Anguelovski show in the commissioned paper “Planning Climate
Resilient Cities” that the enabling factors for early-adapter cities such as Dur-
ban and Quito are largely internal. Th ese factors include local incentives, ideas,
and knowledge generated through local demonstration projects and local net-
works, linking adaptation to ongoing programs, and the ability to enlist the
support of diverse stakeholders from within the city. Th ese dispel the prevalent
notion that external factors are always the main drivers of action and help us to
understand how a city’s internal needs and priorities act as powerful agents for
institutional responses to adaptation.
Th e second theme in the climate change and governance discussion has to
do with the various forms of climate change governance, many of which are
path dependent and refl ect priorities and characteristics that are unique to
each city. We observe that strong political leadership, very oft en by a mayor, is