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Pasternack, Scott --- "Local Climate Change Law and Multi-level Governance in North America" [2012] ELECD 716; in Richardson, J. Benjamin (ed), "Local Climate Change Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Local Climate Change Law

Editor(s): Richardson, J. Benjamin

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857937476

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Local Climate Change Law and Multi-level Governance in North America

Author(s): Pasternack, Scott

Number of pages: 36

Extract:

3. Local climate change law and
multi-level governance in North
America
Scott Pasternack*

1. INTRODUCTION
As `engines of the global economy', cities consume much of the world's
energy and resources, resulting in numerous greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
that contribute significantly to climate change impacts. Ironically, cities are
often the most vulnerable to these impacts.1 Fortunately, many cities are
responding. They have entered into multi-city agreements, completed GHG
emission inventories, adopted GHG reduction targets, pursued innovative
green financing, and adopted local laws and policies to meet these commit-
ments. However, given the magnitude of the problem, more is needed.2
Essential to the adoption of local climate change actions has been the inter-
actions among and between different levels of government, various jurisdic-
tions within the same level of government, non-profit organizations, business
associations, and community groups. Such multi-level governance (MLG)
approaches to climate change are what this conundrum continues to require in
order to attain effective solutions. Neither efforts to adopt comprehensive,
federal climate change legislation in Canada and the United States ­ the focus
of this chapter ­ nor efforts to replace or update the Kyoto Protocol3 have yet
to succeed. Part 2 of this chapter provides an overview of MLG, and Part 3
offers Canadian and US examples of local climate change actions reflective of
such approaches.


* The views expressed in this chapter are the author's and do not reflect the
policies and positions of the Toronto City Council or the City of ...