Chapter 4 Climate Protection and Civil Society: Does Effective Local Climate Policy Need the Participation and Engagement of Citizens? A Comparison Between the Cities of Potsdam and Muenster

Abstract

Purpose – Many cities have taken action in order to reduce their carbon footprints. Moreover, the European city has historically been the home of democratic institutions, which have proven to be crucial for successful policy. The leading question of this chapter is whether or not this traditional link between democracy and active citizen participation also holds with respect to local climate policy.

Design/methodology/approach – In our chapter, we take a comparative look at two cities – Muenster in Rhineland Westphalia and Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg next to Berlin. We have a look at the track records of both cities’ carbon footprint and analyze the role of civil society in local climate policy. We develop a set of qualitative indicators, measuring local climate policy outcomes on the one hand and local climate policy performance on the other. We base our analysis on documents and on stakeholder interviews in both cities.

Findings – The findings show that Muenster has performed better in urban climate protection than Potsdam. Also the level of civil society engagement is higher in Muenster. Thus, the hypothesis that cities with a higher level of civil society engagement also perform better in urban climate policy can be confirmed. However, Muenster performs just slightly better than Potsdam. Both cities have failed to meet their climate goals. A closer look to the local climate policy performance leads us to the final conclusion that cities should be more active in supporting and including citizens in their local climate policies in all areas of life – including lifestyle politics and political consumerism.

Citation

Neebe, M. and Reusswig, F. (2012), "Chapter 4 Climate Protection and Civil Society: Does Effective Local Climate Policy Need the Participation and Engagement of Citizens? A Comparison Between the Cities of Potsdam and Muenster", Holt, W.G. (Ed.) Urban Areas and Global Climate Change (Research in Urban Sociology, Vol. 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 75-104. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1047-0042(2012)0000012007