Structure, agency and local climate governance: How do individual actors shape policymaking in smaller cities and towns?

A growing literature has emphasised how structural factors shape levels of ambition in local climate policy. Specifically, cities that have larger, wealthier, highly-educated and younger populations, are supported by local universities and research institutes and in which civil society organisations and green parties are strong and active, are more likely to be ‘leaders’ in climate mitigation and adaptation (Haupt et al 2022). Conversely, smaller towns, with less wealthy and older populations, which are more reliant on heavy industry and with weaker civil society organisations and green parties, are more likely to be ‘laggards’ (Otto et al 2021; Salvia et al 2021). Such studies are informative from an academic perspective (because they identify the key factors that contribute towards more ambitious policymaking), and instructive for policymakers (who can pinpoint where additional support and funding schemes may be necessary to ensure that all cities keep pace with the leaders). However, they neglect to take account of agency and the likelihood that individuals in some municipalities can pursue ambitious climate policy despite operating in less favourable local conditions. At the same time, the actions of key individuals in cities where socioeconomic and political conditions are more favourable could hinder the adoption of ambitious policies. Given these considerations, how can we incorporate both structure and agency into analyses of local climate governance? This paper presents a framework to conceptualise the role of both dimensions in policymaking, and suggests how they could contribute to cities becoming leaders, followers or latecomers in climate policy. We then apply this framework to a qualitative study of eleven cities in Germany. Following Cairney (2018), we anticipate that the role of agency and the strength of policy entrepreneurs may be particularly profound in smaller organisations and therefore we restricted our case selection to municipalities with between 50,000-100,000 inhabitants. We show how those places with active climate managers were able to push forward ambitious policies despite unfavourable local conditions, and set out the factors that can help them exercise greater agency in policymaking processes.