ABSTRACT
The duality of strong climate policy at the local level in Anchorage and the undercutting of policy at higher levels of government in the United States illustrates an oft-overlooked reality: in the Arctic, city leadership matters just as much, if not more, than state delegations in crafting climate change policy. While demographic shifts and corresponding energy demands are transforming Arctic cities, there is concurrent physical transformation that is fundamentally changing Arctic landscapes, economies, and cultures: global climate change. Even in Arctic countries with aggressive national climate targets like Finland and Norway, greenhouse gas reduction targets and adaptation actions rely on decisions by subnational policymakers to transform their cities into low-carbon metropolises. Despite the state-centredness of international relations’ theoretical underpinnings and general conceptions of state practice in the world system since the close of the Second World War, non-state actors, including non-governmental organizations, multinational corporations, regions, and cities, have entered the global stage.
