Subnational Diplomacy and Climate Change Action: Case of Istanbul

• In Event: Subnational Climate Policy

Abstract

This paper examines the significance of local governments and their subnational diplomacy in climate change action, especially concerning the implementation of the Paris Climate Accords.
When central governments do not take the lead in effective climate change action, local governments might resort to subnational diplomacy. That means that cities or regional governments might take the lead in establishing their own networks in order to implement the necessary policies in climate change action and “solve problems”, such as building efficiency, transport emissions, etc.
The paper first presents a theoretical framework of how a local government/major city can exert its influence nationally and globally in climate change action by a) creating “structures”, b) enabling the “agency” of actors, c) facilitating “processes”, d) achieving desired “outputs/outcomes”, using the structure/agency/process/output(outcome) framework. Then it uses the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality as an illustrative case, using data from semi-structured interviews.
As a major city, Istanbul (Turkiye) is an appropriate case study as its Metropolitan Municipality has emerged as a key climate action champion in a country that has circumvented taking effective action towards meeting the Paris Climate Change agreement goals at the central level. It is taking important steps as an important player in “problem-solving” in transnational networks on this issue, such as the Cities 40 (C40) network.
The paper aims to uncover the cooperation and collaboration dynamics between different governmental levels and under which conditions they occur and are effective. Overall, this project aims to contribute to the environmental politics, and multilevel governance literatures by bringing into light the importance of subnational diplomacy in tackling climate change action.

Author

• Yasemin Irepoglu Carreras, University of California, Riverside