ABSTRACT
Local climate policy is a voluntary task of local governments. Absent a legal requirement to fulfil this task, office-holders have to justify costly climate-related actions such as mitigation of adverse effects and adaptation to changing conditions. Especially when pursuing a mitigation of local effects of climate change, they must link the global threat of climate change, with its global causes and consequences, to local actions. At the same time, local climate policy does not take place in a vacuum but is influenced by decisions, incentives as well as ideas from and involvement in different processes at higher levels of government. In addition, horizontal cooperation between cities can influence the outcome of local decision-making processes. Both dimensions of multi-level policy can be conceptualised as one action space.
