Forming networks, enabling leaders, financing action: the Cities for Climate Protection™ campaign

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511535871.027

24 - Forming networks, enabling leaders, financing action: the Cities for Climate Protection™ campaign

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2009

Abby Young

Edited by

Susanne C. Moser and

Lisa Dilling

Show author details

Abby Young: Affiliation:
ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability
Susanne C. Moser: Affiliation:
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder
Lisa Dilling: Affiliation:
University of Colorado, Boulder

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Local governments are well placed to get to the nub of the [climate] problem in a way that global treaties and carbon trading can never achieve. They can get the message across to the residents, shopkeepers and drivers of the world that efficient, cheap-to-run homes, fridges, cars and so on can improve their quality of life while helping a global cause. … It's refreshing to see that bottom-up local action still has an important part to play in tackling climate change. Power to the people indeed!

Jim Gillon (2004)

Local governments have been the leading champions for climate protection in the United States for over a decade. While not funded or mandated by higher levels of government to do so, local governments have taken on the burden of reducing their communities' contribution to global warming. What motivates this action? In over ten years of working with local governments on climate protection planning, ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability has identified common factors that facilitate local action. These include the presence of a local champion, positive effects on the financial bottom line, and supportive networks of local governments across the country making the same commitments and taking similar actions. The campaign is introduced in the section below, while these key factors are discussed in the remainder of the chapter. Observations from what has worked in these local communities hold valuable practical lessons for communication and social change.

Type: Chapter
Information: Creating a Climate for Change
Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change
, pp. 383 - 398

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511535871.027 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Betsill, M. M. (2001). Acting Locally, Does It Matter Globally? The Contribution of U.S. Cities to Global Climate Change Mitigation. Paper presented at the Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Research Community, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 6–8, 2001.

Bulkeley, H. and Betsill, M. (2002). Denver: climate protection, energy management and the transport sector. In Cities and Climate Change, eds. Bulkeley, H., and Betsill, M.London: Routledge, pp. 123–36.Google Scholar

Gillon, J. (2004). People power against climate change (Correspondence). Nature, 430, 15.CrossRef Google Scholar

Harris, J., et al. (no date). Energy-Efficient Purchasing by State and Local Government: Triggering a Landslide down the Slippery Slope to Market Transformation. Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Available at: http://www.dc.lbl.gov/LBNLDC/publications/Energy%20Efficient%20Purchasing%20By%20State%20and%20Local%20Government.pdf; accessed January 17, 2006.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2001a). Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2001b). Climate Change 2001:Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Kosloff, L. H., Trexler, M. C., and Nelson, H. (2004). Outcome-oriented leadership: how state and local climate change strategies can most effectively contribute to global warming mitigation. Widener Law Journal, 14, 173–204.Google Scholar

Kousky, C. and Schneider, S. H. (2003). Global climate policy: Will cities lead the way?Climate Policy, 3, 359–72.CrossRef Google Scholar

Lambright, H. W., Changnon, S. A., and Harvey, D. (1996). Urban reactions to the global warming issue: Agenda setting in Toronto and Chicago. Climatic Change, 34, 463–78.CrossRef Google Scholar

Lindseth, G. (2003). The Framing of an International Concerted Action for Local Climate Policy: The Case of the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP). VF-rapport, November. Sogndal, Norway: Western Norway Research Institute.

Lindseth, G. (2004). The Cities for Climate Protection Campaign (CCP) and the framing of local climate policy. Local Environment, 9, 4, 325–36.CrossRef Google Scholar

McKinstry, R. B. Jr. (2004). Laboratories for local solutions for global problems: state, local and private leadership in developing strategies to mitigate the causes and effects of climate change. Penn State Environmental Law Review, 12, 1, 15–82.Google Scholar

National Assessment Synthesis Team (2001). Climate Change Impacts on the United States:The Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, Overview. US Global Change Research Program. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Vasi, I. B. (2003). Organizational Environments and Compatibility: The Diffusion of the Program against Global Climate Change among Local Governments in the U.S. Paper presented at the American Sociological Association, Atlanta, GA, August.

Victor, D. G., House, J. C., and Joy, S. (2005). A Madisonian approach to climate policy. Science, 309, 1820–21.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed