Urban Carbon Governance Experiments: The Role of Australian Local Governments

McGuirk, P.; Dowling, R.; Brennan, C.; Bulkeley, H.

doi:10.1111/1745-5871.12098

Urban Carbon Governance Experiments: The Role of Australian Local Governments

McGuirk, P.; Dowling, R.; Brennan, C.; Bulkeley, H.

Authors

P. McGuirk

R. Dowling

C. Brennan

Professor Harriet Bulkeley h.a.bulkeley@durham.ac.uk
Deputy Executive Dean (Research)

Abstract

Cities, and particularly urban local governments, are now widely recognised for their part in the complex, multilevel landscape of climate governance and carbon reduction. Nonetheless local government projects and initiatives are often framed as of limited value, outside the formal governance framework, and unable to contribute systematically. In contrast, this paper locates these initiatives as already part of the way in which governing climate and carbon is conducted and as governance experiments. We provide a descriptive analysis of these initiatives across Australia's capital cities, highlighting the domains, mechanisms, and partners through which they operate. We illustrate the enactment of experimentation through a detailed examination of the Sydney-based initiative termed Treading Lightly, drawing out in particular the workings of institutional experimentation and experimentation in governance practices. We conclude with brief reflections on the governance implications of such experimentation and their importance as a site in the emergent politics of urban carbon governance.

Citation

McGuirk, P., Dowling, R., Brennan, C., & Bulkeley, H. (2015). Urban Carbon Governance Experiments: The Role of Australian Local Governments. Geographical Research, 53(1), 39-52. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12098

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Feb 1, 2015
Deposit Date	Jan 23, 2015
Publicly Available Date	Jan 13, 2017
Journal	Geographical Research
Print ISSN	1745-5863
Electronic ISSN	1745-5871
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	53
Issue	1
Pages	39-52
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12098
Keywords	Cities and climate change, Urban carbon governance, Local government, Experimentation, Australia.

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: McGuirk, P., Dowling, R., Brennan, C. and Bulkeley, H. (2015) 'Urban carbon governance experiments : the role of Australian local governments.', Geographical Research, 53 (1): 39-52, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12098. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.