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Experiments in EU Climate Governance: The Unfulfilled Potential of the Covenant of Mayors

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  • Ekaterina Domorenok
  • Giuseppe Acconcia
  • Lena Bendlin
  • Xira Ruiz Campillo

Abstract

Over the last decade, a growing body of academic literature has reflected on how and under which conditions experiments in global climate governance lead to broader changes in rules, norms, and practices helping to meet the challenge of climate change. Drawing on the assumptions of the scholarship on experimentalist governance architectures, this article analyzes the effectiveness of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) as a comprehensive governance framework that enables the development and coordination of local policies for sustainable energy and climate through a range of joint instruments for recursive goal setting, monitoring, and benchmarking. Our findings illustrate the CoM’s significant potential in terms of both general political uptake and policy output, which could make of this program, if appropriately fine-tuned, a successful governance experiment contributing to building a more effective global climate regime.

Suggested Citation

  • Ekaterina Domorenok & Giuseppe Acconcia & Lena Bendlin & Xira Ruiz Campillo, 2020. "Experiments in EU Climate Governance: The Unfulfilled Potential of the Covenant of Mayors," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(4), pages 122-142, Autumn.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:glenvp:v:20:y:2020:i:4:p:122-142
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Andrew Jordan & Harro van Asselt & Frans Berkhout & Dave Huitema & Tim Rayner, 2012. "Understanding the Paradoxes of Multilevel Governing: Climate Change Policy in the European Union," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 12(2), pages 43-66, May.
    3. Steven Bernstein & Matthew Hoffmann, 2018. "The politics of decarbonization and the catalytic impact of subnational climate experiments," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 51(2), pages 189-211, June.
    4. Sander Chan & Harro van Asselt & Thomas Hale & Kenneth W. Abbott & Marianne Beisheim & Matthew Hoffmann & Brendan Guy & Niklas Höhne & Angel Hsu & Philipp Pattberg & Pieter Pauw & Céline Ramstein & Os, 2015. "Reinvigorating International Climate Policy: A Comprehensive Framework for Effective Nonstate Action," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 6(4), pages 466-473, November.
    5. Kern, Kristine, 2019. "Cities as leaders in EU multilevel climate governance: embedded upscaling of local experiments in Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 125-145.
    6. Jennifer S. Bansard & Philipp H. Pattberg & Oscar Widerberg, 2017. "Cities to the rescue? Assessing the performance of transnational municipal networks in global climate governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 229-246, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Angel Hsu & Xuewei Wang & Jonas Tan & Wayne Toh & Nihit Goyal, 2022. "Predicting European cities’ climate mitigation performance using machine learning," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.

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