Which local factors shape low-carbon transformations in mid-sized cities? A comparison of industrial, World Heritage and university cities in Germany

Recent studies have found that local climate policies across Europe can vary significantly, although larger cities tend to be more active and set more stringent objectives than smaller municipalities (Salvia et al 2021; Otto et al 2021). However, apart from leading and pioneering cities such as Freiburg, Malmö, Bristol or Heidelberg, there has been less research into mid-sized cities, particularly around the local factors that influence their climate activities. This paper draws on document analysis and interviews in 21 mid-sized German cities to examine how local socioeconomic, institutional and political factors shape climate policymaking and strategy. We group these 21 municipalities into three categories: (post)industrial cities (which may have experienced recent structural change), ‘World Heritage’ cities (in which a significant proportion of the buildings or landscape is under UNESCO protection), and university cities (in which academic or research institutions play a major role in the local community). Despite having unfavourable conditions for undergoing a low-carbon transformation, we show how some (post)industrial cities (such as Gelsenkirchen and Oberhausen) have been able to adopt ambitious climate policies – although other comparable cities (e.g. Cottbus) lag much further behind. Results were also mixed for World Heritage cities such as Potsdam, Würzburg and Regensburg, which are limited in terms of the changes they can make to buildings or the local landscape but might nonetheless view sustainability as an additional tool to preserve monuments and attract tourists. In contrast, we found that university cities such as Bonn, Aachen, Rostock and Erlangen found it much easier to develop far-reaching climate policies, because they had more sympathetic populations and politicians, and could rely on support from the local research community.