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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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    1. 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.
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    Cited by:

    1. Marielle Papin & Jacob Fortier, 2024. "The diverse cities of global urban climate governance," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 15(4), pages 631-643, September.
    2. 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.
    3. Andreas Corcaci & Jörg Kemmerzell, 2023. "Trans‐local action and local climate policy. Configurations of success for climate innovations in the European multilevel system," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 40(6), pages 1120-1143, November.
    4. Nadia Soledad Ibañez Iralde & Enric Mont Lecocq & Jordi Pascual & Núria Martí Audí & Jaume Salom, 2024. "Harmonising Indicators to Report Sustainable Development Goals and Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan: Systemic Analysis of Existing Regional and City Indicators Sets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-39, September.

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