The Power in Working Together: How Small and Medium-sized Municipalities are Collaborating for Ambitious Climate Action
In June 2021, Cynthia Coulombe completed her Master’s thesis research at Lund University in Sweden on the topic of ambitious climate actions by small and medium-sized municipalities. She focused on the importance of how committed individuals in municipalities in Denmark are working together through established national city networks. In this article, Kes McCormick interviews Cynthia on her key findings for research and practice.
It is in cities where climate actions are vital to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reach international and national climate goals. While the importance of cities and participation in networks is well researched, studies have systematically neglected exploring the role of committed individual agents in small and medium-sized municipalities and overlooked the importance of national city networks.
To address these research gaps, this thesis firstly investigated the key factors influencing climate policy implementation in small and medium-sized municipalities in Denmark. Secondly, it looked at how local climate managers use membership in national city networks to facilitate climate action. To gather empirical data, semi-structured interviews and discussions were conducted with municialities and networks as well as researchers in the field.
KES: Can you explain the topic of your research?
CYNTHIA: The topic of my Master’s thesis was on small and medium-sized Danish municipalities collaborating for climate action. It is located within the wider field of urban climate governance by focusing on local climate governance within 7 municipalities and the collaboration between them. They collaborated mainly through 2 national city networks - Energibyerne (“the Energy Cities” in English) and DK2020.
The first network called Energibyerne is a collaboration of the 7 municipalities in focus in my research and the second network is DK2020, a C40 and Realdania initiative, which currently has 66 Danish municipalities onboard. Therefore, my Master’s thesis had a dual focus on the concepts of small and medium-sized municipalities and on national city networks, which are often overlooked in research.
The goal of my research was to investigate how small and medium-sized municipalities are using national city networks to increase the implementation of local climate change policies. To do this, the research included the key factors that affected the implementation of these policies at the local municipal level and then the main functions of the national city networks used to increase the impact of actions.
KES: What were the methods and approach behind your research?
CYNTHIA: To gather the empirical data for my research, I used a case study research design by focusing on 2 national city networks. A total of 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 municipal representatives who participate in the networks and 5 representatives from the 2 studied networks. Additionally, 4 discussions were organised with researchers in the field to further develop the understanding of the topic. Documents such as climate action plans and municipal websites were also reviewed. The gathered data was analyzed through comparative content analysis.
KES: What were the key findings from your research and data?
CYNTHIA: The central finding was that the main functions derived from the participation in national city networks were direct exchanges between the climate managers, the mobilization of other civil servants within the municipality, improved accounting of greenhouse gas emissions, and project support. These functions helped overcome key limitations the actors faced within the municipality related to a lack of legal competences, limited administrative and financial resources, and a lack of internal support for climate work. Thus, what the municipalities lacked the most was what was most valued from network functions.
Moreover, the most valued function was the direct exchanges between the climate managers which was possible due to the recurrent meetings with the same small group of individuals who learned to trust each other. This interactive communication was necessary for a learning process to occur which was not found through other network functions such as postings of best practices or newsletters.
Lastly, the most important factor was the presence (or absence) of policy entrepreneurs and political will to take ambitious climate actions. Climate managers, acting as policy entrepreneurs, were able to sway politicians by framing the problem with what the politicians cared most about and by linking the climate agenda to other key policies such as rural development, economic growth, and job creation.
KES: Were there any surprises in your findings?
CYNTHIA: A surprising finding was that it is not municipalities as an organisation that used membership in the national city networks but the individuals working on climate policies within the municipalities (the climate managers), acting as policy entrepreneurs. This was surprising considering how considerable research has focused on the city level for climate actions but in fact it is often a small group of individuals within the municipality who are creating the conditions for action.
Another surprise was how national networks that are bigger in size resemble more the offerings of the transnational networks compared to smaller ones. The smaller networks offered more intangible benefits that were considered valuable for the climate managers. For example, just talking with people who were facing similar challenges in other municipalities provided them with a motivational boost which is crucial since the climate advancement of the municipality often depends on the efforts of these individuals.
KES: What are your key recommendations for action?
CYNTHIA: For municipalities to get the most out of national city networks, it is important to carefully choose the representatives from the municipality who will participate within the network activities. This requires the selected people to have good networking skills, a good personal network in the municipalities and that they are highly motivated to utilize the functions being offered and that they will actively engage with other municipatlites in the networks.
The overall recommendation for networks is to understand how to best respond to the needs and local struggles of the municipal climate managers. As this research showed, these actors use the networks to overcome local difficulties they are currently facing and that networks act as this intermediary platform between the climate managers and local climate implementation. Thus, the best way to create the most value for them and to steer and influence members is to understand the needs they are lacking.
Kes McCormick is an Associate Professor at Lund University in Sweden. He acted as a supervisor for Cynthia Coulombe on her Master’s thesis research. Click here to download the full thesis.
Energibyerne is a network of frontrunner Danish municipalities within the energy sector. The network is part of a European network called SmartEnCity that is a Horizon 2020 project.
DK2020 is a Realdania and C40 initiative seeking to expedite efforts of Danish municipalities to meet the Paris Agreement goals and to support dialogue and cooperation between Danish municipalities.
