ABSTRACT
In many ways, GCAP is a breakthrough policy for the City. For over five years now and three electoral cycles, it has been a sustained focus of mayor and council. It has generated new positive action, enthusiasm, and sustainability and climate policy results. As a policy process, it has set new high bars in terms of benchmarking the city’s progress against international peers, reporting publicly on progress, demonstrating the feasibility of new partnerships to increase governance capacity, showing that strong plans can come with fast action, disseminating understanding and responsibility for climate change and sustainability action throughout the city organization and out to the city at large, and engaging a broad spectrum of the public. But it is not without flaws. The next sections discuss the breakthrough patterns and shortcomings of the GCAP in terms of advancing a new hierarchical structure of knowledge flow related to sustainability within the city organization, new empowerment structure and partnerships via longer-term public engagement and formal external partnerships, public reporting on progress and integration of policy components.
