Integrative and Interactive Climate Governance in Europe’s Green Capital: What Explains the Oslo Model of City Climate Governance?

The Paris Agreement marks a shift in views of how global climate change governance should evolve from previous attempts to form a legal regime at global scale based on common state commitments, to become a catalytic mechanism to promote and facilitate deep decarbonization among multiple public and private actors at all scales (Bernstein and Hoffman 2018). This proposes a polycentric approach for coping with climate change as an alternative approach to addressing the complex and unruly problems of climate change through a global compact (Ostrom, 2009). The role for cities and city-networks in creating shared goals and commitment in this new context are perceived as especially profound and important to understand. Cities are medium-scale governance units which are linked together in informal and formal networks and can provide encouragement among multiple public and private stakeholders and active oversight and monitoring of GHG emissions. Oslo is a front-runner in city climate policy, and received the Europe’s green capital award in 2019. Hence, important lessons can be drawn from studying Oslo’s climate governance. This article explains the ‘Oslo model of city climate governance’ with reference to institutional design and leadership factors. The concepts of integrative and interactive governance and co-creation are explored as ideas and possible policy pathways for the public sector in moving city climate governance towards goals of a fair and efficient climate transformation and sustainable urban futures. The article provides an analytical framework for analysing city climate governance based on the Oslo model.