A Decade of C40: Research Insights and Agendas for City Networks
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12740 |
| Author | Kathryn Davidson,Brendan Gleeson,Lars Coenen |
| Published date | 01 November 2019 |
| Date | 01 November 2019 |
A Decade of C40: Research Insights and
Agendas for City Networks
Kathryn Davidson
The University of Melbourne
Lars Coenen
Mohn Centre for Regional Development and Innovation, Western Norway University of
Applied Sciences and The University of Melbourne
Brendan Gleeson
The University of Melbourne
Abstract
In the last decade, there has been a marked growth in formalised city networks. City networks of late have transcended
beyond municipal collaborations towards more complex networked governance arrangements. City networks are noted also
to raise the level of ambition among cities learning from and competing with each other with regard to the deployment of
low-carbon technologies and policies. Over the last two decades, at least nine urban climate networks have been established
around the world. This article consolidates the academic literature on C40 within the context of three key themes that are
drawn upon from earlier work of Davidson et al. with the goal of drawing out the key implications of researching, and putting
into practice, urban studies in an age of increasingly networked urban governance and the role of city networks. We conclude
the paper with articulating a new research agenda that places a focus on the effects of city networks on institutional rele-
vance of traditional planning in ways that have not yet been considered in practice and scholarship. We argue a key challenge
is to align and potentially synthesise these traditional and new forms of city shaping in an urban age era of rapidly unfolding
endangerment.
In the last decade, there has been a marked growth in for-
malised city networks. City networks of late have tran-
scended beyond municipal collaborations towards more
complex networked governance arrangements (Davidson
and Gleeson, 2018; Davidson et al., 2019). Scholars have
noted that in the ‘networking boom’age, cities can derive
clear benefits from engaging in networking activities (Acuto,
2016). As Toly (2008, p. 341) noted, participating in transna-
tional municipal networks provides cities with significant
opportunities, amongst others, to enter into ‘inter-municipal
dialogue[s]’and pool their global influences. City networks
are noted also to raise the level of ambition among cities
learning from and competing with each other with regard
to the deployment of low-carbon innovations and policies
(Broto and Bulkeley, 2013; Davidson and Gleeson, 2018; Gor-
don and Acuto, 2015). These new forms of cross-national
networking are potentially framing and reframing urban
governance and strategy, and the way we conceive of cities,
and their policies and politics, in an age of planetary urbani-
sation (Acuto, 2011; Merrifield, 2013).
The emergence of networked city climate governance
arguably reflects the failure of national and state govern-
ments to acknowledge the necessity for a global response
to anthropogenic global warming (Sassen, 2014). The
evolution of this new field of climate governance has
recently been recognised and points to a compelling new
‘urban centrality’in global affairs (Bulkeley et al., 2014). The
concept of ‘urban centrality’manifested itself prior to and
during the 2015 Paris Conference of Parties (COPs), most
notably via the formation of the Compact of Mayors
among urban leagues established at the 2014 UNSG Cli-
mate Summit. Additional impetus arose from the unifying
initiative of all city networks under the leadership of Mike
Bloomberg as UN Special Envoy for Cities and Climate
Change and the Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. The Intergov-
ernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2014) now
acknowledges that city climate networks are critical in
engaging citizens in the development of responses to cli-
mate change and also in promoting ‘diffusion of climate
policies throughout the world’(Falkner, 2016, p. 1112). With
the failure of national governments to ‘step up’to the chal-
lenge of climate change, a compelling space for city-based
climate governance and innovative climate action has been
created.
Over the last two decades, at least nine urban climate
networks have been established around the world. Of these
the C40 network has gained considerable traction by articu-
lating climate change as an urban-driven question and
Global Policy (2019) 10:4 doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12740 ©2019 Durham University and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Global Policy Volume 10 . Issue 4 . November 2019 697
Special Section Article
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