Can Cities, States and Regions Save Our Planet?

"This compelling study on climate change governance is a must-read for academics, policy makers and the general public. The book offers original new research from a broad range of case studies in both the US and France. Barichella convincingly demonstrates that multilevel governance matters and is critical if we are to keep global temperatures below the 2°C Paris Agreement threshold by the end of the century."

- Dr. Patrick Schembri, University Paris-Saclay, France

This book examines the potential for cities, states and regions to take decisive action on climate change at the local level. Local action constitutes an essential component of global efforts to keep temperatures below the 2°C Paris Agreement threshold. Focusing on three green municipal leaders - New York, Boston and Paris - this volume examines their multilevel interactions with higher governance echelons in the United States and France. Even though these countries are located on different continents, similar patterns emerge on both sides of the Atlantic. This book explores the key role of municipalities and sub-state entities in shaping the climate policy agenda vis-à-vis national governments in the US and France. It argues that inadequate articulation of multilevel governance may jeopardize efforts to limit global temperature increase below the 2°C threshold by the end of the century.

Arnault Barichella is a post-doctoral researcher with the Institute for Sustainable Energy at the Université Paris-Saclay, where he works on local climate policies and hybrid hydrogen engines. He received his PhD in Political Science from Sciences Po Paris, with a thesis comparing multilevel climate governance in the US and France; he is an affiliated researcher at Sciences Po's Center for European Studies. Arnault obtained his Masters' degree from Sciences Po Paris, his BA degree from Oxford University, and was awarded a visiting fellowship at Harvard University.