Shaping local climate policies: A review of experience

The document identifies three critical sets of conditions for the effective implementation of local climate policies in developing countries: government capacity, problem framing, and political factors. It argues that while government capacity (legal, financial, and technical) acts as a necessary enabling condition, the actual motivation for policy action depends on how climate goals are framed to align with local socioeconomic concerns and the influence of political entrepreneurs and interest groups. The author emphasizes that implementation is more politically challenging than adoption and suggests a 'configurational' approach to understanding how these various factors combine to produce successful outcomes.

• Effective local climate action requires government capacity across four dimensions: legal competence in sectors like energy and transport, human resources, funding (often from outside the city budget), and technical expertise to manage local data.
• There is often a 'fit' problem where the scale of urban climate issues exceeds the legal authority of local governments, particularly in large metropolitan areas like Mexico City and Buenos Aires where jurisdictions overlap.
• Local climate policies are more likely to be implemented when framed around immediate local socioeconomic benefits rather than global climate goals; for example, mitigation efforts in China, India, and Indonesia were primarily driven by cost savings and air pollution reduction.
• Climate adaptation often lacks local traction in the developing world because it is not sufficiently linked to pressing urban social, economic, and environmental problems.
• Political 'entrepreneurs' or champions are key to the initial adoption of climate legislation, but broader institutional capacity is required to overcome the administrative and political obstacles of implementation.
• Local climate policy is influenced by diverse coalitions of interest groups; for instance, in Buenos Aires, bicycle manufacturers supported bike-promotion policies while taxi associations opposed them.

APA

Ryan, D. (2014). Shaping local climate policies: A review of experience. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/CDKN_Daniel-Ryan_Final_WEB.pdf

Chicago

Ryan, Daniel. Shaping local climate policies: A review of experience. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2014. https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/CDKN_Daniel-Ryan_Final_WEB.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ryan |first1=Daniel |title=Shaping local climate policies: A review of experience |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=April 2014 |url=https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/CDKN_Daniel-Ryan_Final_WEB.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ryan2014shaping, author = {Ryan, Daniel}, title = {{Shaping local climate policies: A review of experience}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2014}, month = apr, url = {https://cdkn.org/sites/default/files/files/CDKN_Daniel-Ryan_Final_WEB.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }