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This paper analyses how 10 localities in the USA and England, recognised as leaders in clean energy and climate action, have used collaborative approaches to develop local climate change plans and energy conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy initiatives. It examines these planning and policy-making processes in the context of Margerum's [2008. A typology of collaboration efforts in environmental management.Environmental Management, 41 (4), 487–500] typology of “action”, “organizational”, and “policy-level” collaborations, as well as Gray's [1989.Collaborating: finding common ground for multiparty problems. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass] classification of collaboration in the “problem-setting”, “direction-setting”, and “implementation” phases. We conducted interviews with local elected officials, municipal staff, energy professionals, and citizen volunteers in each community, supplemented with an analysis of their adopted energy, climate change, and land-use plans. We find that despite the different government structures and political contexts between the two countries, there was a surprising amount of commonality in how the case study localities used collaborative planning to develop local climate plans and clean energy initiatives. These processes were most often initiated by local elected officials and/or high-level staff members, and then carried out in collaboration with local third-sector organisations and other community stakeholders. In the USA, collaboration was strongest at the policy level and in the direction-setting phase, with the distinguishing feature that citizen advisory boards or stakeholder working groups often took a more active role in shaping local plans and policies. The English localities had some of those same types of collaborations, but were more likely to also employ action collaboration, in the implementation phase, in which third-sector organisations coordinated with the locality to directly provide clean energy services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban sustainability issues including climate change mitigation and adaptation, ecological enhancement and livability initiatives have become the rhetorical focus and rationale of many plans and policy documents created by American cities in the last decade. This paper analyses the recent environmentally focused plans for three largest cities of USA to determine how and if their strategies to protect the natural environment engage with the holistic nature of sustainable development strategies promulgated in the literature. Despite the mainstreaming of the sustainability concept, the research shows that these much-lauded and emulated plans largely fail to substantively engage with a fully realised holistic approach, failing to adequately address issues of equitable economic development and environmental justice in their attempts to create a more environmentally sustainable city. The lack of attention paid to such issues suggests not merely that they are perceived as being separate from environmental objectives, but that in some cases they may be seen as oppositional, particularly when contrasted with the way that environmental issues are seen to converge with global city and overall economic development aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has become a more salient issue on the US policy agenda at all levels of government. Increasing empirical evidence and identification of its potential risks to human populations have increased media, public, and policy-maker interest. There is a gap, however, in our knowledge of sub-national decision-making which suggests several questions: Are community leaders deciding to take action in response to climate change action, and, if so, what is the solution focus - mitigation or adaptation? Our study addresses this gap in the literature by reporting the results of a national survey of local, regional, and state decision-makers whose organisations will be addressing community responses to the threat of climate change. We find that, in general, these agencies are not engaged in climate change policy, nor is the issue on their agendas. Among organisations considering policy responses, there is variation between types of agency and type of solution, mitigation versus adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current and projected future physical impacts of climate change are most extreme in the northern latitudes. The indigenous peoples in the North American arctic and sub-arctic rely on the availability of natural resources in mixed subsistence economies for nutritional and cultural survival and thus experience disproportionate burdens with respect to our changing climate. Arctic climate impacts exemplify how global phenomena and activities can significantly affect people locally in remote regions. These impacts are largely consistent throughout the region, irrespective of national boarders; however, indigenous peoples in Canada are better positioned than those in the United States to shape policy in a way that would ensure their adaptation to climate change. Political and industrial activity on national and global scales can have significant environmental, social and cultural repercussions on the local scale in remote areas. Remedies for environmental injustice will thus require strong cross-scale political and institutional linkages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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