Climate capacity in medium-sized German cities: (how) do smaller municipalities implement mitigation and adaptation policies?
Abstract Although research has begun to examine local mitigation and adaptation approaches in parallel, it has tended to focus on leading cities and adopt large-N approaches that focus on published climate plans. We know little about whether smaller local governments are able to address these twin c...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-07-01
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| Series: | npj Climate Action |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44168-025-00259-w |
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| _version_ | 1849334131011354624 |
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| author | Peter Eckersley Antje Otto Wolfgang Haupt Kristine Kern |
| author_facet | Peter Eckersley Antje Otto Wolfgang Haupt Kristine Kern |
| author_sort | Peter Eckersley |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Although research has begun to examine local mitigation and adaptation approaches in parallel, it has tended to focus on leading cities and adopt large-N approaches that focus on published climate plans. We know little about whether smaller local governments are able to address these twin challenges simultaneously, or whether and how they are implementing their planned policies. Drawing on analysis of 194 German cities, supplemented by fieldwork interviews in ten of these municipalities, we find that smaller cities are focusing increasingly on both mitigation and adaptation at the institutional level. However, concerns remain about implementation and the long-term development of infrastructure projects. Moreover, there is a risk that our knowledge of local climate policy, much of which is based on climate planning documents, may be distorted because municipalities are incentivised to produce highly ambitious and unrealistic plans, and often rely heavily on external experts to draft these documents. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e8d547c207b649dd8b25f49029ebe2b0 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2731-9814 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | npj Climate Action |
| spelling | doaj-art-e8d547c207b649dd8b25f49029ebe2b02025-08-20T03:45:39ZengNature Portfolionpj Climate Action2731-98142025-07-01411910.1038/s44168-025-00259-wClimate capacity in medium-sized German cities: (how) do smaller municipalities implement mitigation and adaptation policies?Peter Eckersley0Antje Otto1Wolfgang Haupt2Kristine Kern3Nottingham Trent UniversityUniversity of PotsdamLeibniz Institute for Research on Society and SpaceLeibniz Institute for Research on Society and SpaceAbstract Although research has begun to examine local mitigation and adaptation approaches in parallel, it has tended to focus on leading cities and adopt large-N approaches that focus on published climate plans. We know little about whether smaller local governments are able to address these twin challenges simultaneously, or whether and how they are implementing their planned policies. Drawing on analysis of 194 German cities, supplemented by fieldwork interviews in ten of these municipalities, we find that smaller cities are focusing increasingly on both mitigation and adaptation at the institutional level. However, concerns remain about implementation and the long-term development of infrastructure projects. Moreover, there is a risk that our knowledge of local climate policy, much of which is based on climate planning documents, may be distorted because municipalities are incentivised to produce highly ambitious and unrealistic plans, and often rely heavily on external experts to draft these documents.https://doi.org/10.1038/s44168-025-00259-w |
| spellingShingle | Peter Eckersley Antje Otto Wolfgang Haupt Kristine Kern Climate capacity in medium-sized German cities: (how) do smaller municipalities implement mitigation and adaptation policies? npj Climate Action |
| title | Climate capacity in medium-sized German cities: (how) do smaller municipalities implement mitigation and adaptation policies? |
| title_full | Climate capacity in medium-sized German cities: (how) do smaller municipalities implement mitigation and adaptation policies? |
| title_fullStr | Climate capacity in medium-sized German cities: (how) do smaller municipalities implement mitigation and adaptation policies? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Climate capacity in medium-sized German cities: (how) do smaller municipalities implement mitigation and adaptation policies? |
| title_short | Climate capacity in medium-sized German cities: (how) do smaller municipalities implement mitigation and adaptation policies? |
| title_sort | climate capacity in medium sized german cities how do smaller municipalities implement mitigation and adaptation policies |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44168-025-00259-w |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT petereckersley climatecapacityinmediumsizedgermancitieshowdosmallermunicipalitiesimplementmitigationandadaptationpolicies AT antjeotto climatecapacityinmediumsizedgermancitieshowdosmallermunicipalitiesimplementmitigationandadaptationpolicies AT wolfganghaupt climatecapacityinmediumsizedgermancitieshowdosmallermunicipalitiesimplementmitigationandadaptationpolicies AT kristinekern climatecapacityinmediumsizedgermancitieshowdosmallermunicipalitiesimplementmitigationandadaptationpolicies |