Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/271210 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Citation: 
[Journal:] Regional Environmental Change [ISSN:] 1436-378X [Volume:] 23 [Issue:] 1 [Article No.:] 28 [Publisher:] Springer Nature [Place:] Berlin [Year:] 2023 [Pages:] 1-12
Publisher: 
Springer Nature, Berlin
Abstract: 
Drawing on data for the 104 largest German cities, and deeper analysis of six mid-sized cities (including forerunners, followers and latecomers in climate mitigation and adaptation), we find that the spread of local mitigation and adaptation strategies across Germany can be explained by a combination of horizontal diffusion and vertical upscaling. Specifically, while the spread of climate mitigation initiatives in the 1990s was triggered primarily by transnational municipal networks (horizontal diffusion), the development and revision of climate mitigation strategies and the emergence of climate adaptation strategies during the last decade have been driven mainly by national and subnational funding programmes (vertical upscaling). Notably, forerunner cities are less dependent on external funding than followers and latecomers, because they have more internal capacity to act. By arguing that upscaling of local climate policies from forerunners to followers and latecomers depends on interventions by national and subnational authorities, we stress that the majority of German municipalities require external support in order to develop and implement effective climate strategies.
Subjects: 
Policy diffusion
Policy upscaling
Municipalities
Local climate mitigation
Local climate adaptation
Germany
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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