Cities,commons,and the unilateral provision of public goods

Abstract

The rise of climate-active municipalities – cities and towns voluntarily creating carbon reduction policy substantially more stringent than their host countries or the international system as a whole – presents a puzzle. Countries, with greater resources and the capacity to create binding agreements to overcome public goods problems, appear to view carbon reduction as an unappealing burden. So why are municipalities, with fewer resources and no way to guarantee a coordinated global effort, so eager to take on the potential disadvantages of stringent carbon reduction? Based on examination of municipal-level carbon reduction activity in Sweden and Portugal, I argue that in fact local-level climate activity represents not a burden but a tool. Municipal climate policy forms the basis for ‘paradiplomacy’ that captures goods for cities, creates international linkages for municipalities, and allows direct participation in setting the terms of global carbon commons policy. The evidence suggests that the nature of the climate commons – incompletely structured from a legal and political perspective, and open to access and intervention by actors at multiple levels – provides unique opportunities for actors to act as makers rather than takers of global governance structure and diplomatic effort in a critical area of emerging international policymaking.