A successful working of sustainable planning system under multiple planning governance systems: The role of cities in climate change policy

Wheeler’s book gives me an opportunity to explore the necessity or possibility of mutual partnership or cooperation under multiple-level sustainable planning governance. However, as I mentioned in Blackboard, there is little mention about the existence of role conflicts or mechanisms for solving them. Through a Web search, I found an interesting working paper published by the OECD. The title of this paper written by Lamia Kamel-Chaoui and Alexis Robert in 2009 is “Competitive Cities and Climate Change.”

As I already know, climate change is a global issue as well as a local issue that all policy makers and stakeholders are concerned about. According to the authors, the climate change issue should be considered more at the local level because cities are major contributors to CO2 emissions and therefore urban policies at the local level should carefully consider climate change policy: what role the cities (and the state and federal levels) have, and how each sustainable planning system or governance can set their roles and limitations in an organic and balanced way and consider the possibility of role confusion and conflicts. The authors argue that cities should serve as a “policy laboratory” for action on climate change and effective climate policy packages should seek policy complementarities among and within urban sectors to implement policies that enhance each other’s effectiveness. To do so, well-designed strategic plans and long-term strategic planning should be required and role division between the federal and states or between the federal and local level are needed, according to the authors. Another interesting point in this book is the importance of financing on successful sustainable planning systems, like greening local revenues and financing local green activities, through the use of “fees and charges” as instruments to influence behavior and mitigate climate change. If you are interested in this working paper, please see this link: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/30/36/44232251.pdf