Governance innovations can enhance the capacity of actors to reach climate neutrality. The better we govern collective action, the faster and fairer the required transformation is achieved.

Governance refers to both the “hard” (e.g. regulations, strategies, policies) and “soft” (skills, mindset, forms of collaboration) elements enabling or hindering societal transformation. Climate governance refers to the different ways that cities, other government levels and societal actors use to steer towards climate-neutrality, especially through holistic thinking and collaboration. Instead of one-off, sticking-plaster solutions, climate governance focuses on how the different strategies, actions, technical and social tools, etc., work together as a whole. Key elements of climate governance in cities

The next four interconnected modalities of climate governance help to look at the different levels and ways that change can be pursued in cities:

Domain-specific governance

‘Hard’ governance of systems, processes, and strategies in specific key domains (e.g. city planning, mobility, energy).

Cultural change

‘Soft’ governance of the culture, mindset, and capacities of the organisation and the people within it.

Capacity for ecosystem leadership

The ways in which cities interact with and incentivise the broader city ecosystem (e.g. private actors, citizens, civil society).

Multilevel governance

Governance of collaboration between cities in different forms and for different purposes as well as city-national and city-EU