Why local governments set climate targets: Effects of city size and political costs

Klaus Eisenack

No 29, Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers from Berlin School of Economics

Abstract: Cities increasingly address climate change, e.g. by pledging city-level emission reduction targets. This is puzzling for the provision of a global public good: what are city governments’ reasons for doing so, and do pledges actually translate into emission reductions? Empirical studies have found a set of common factors which relate to these questions, but also mixed evidence. What is still pending is a theoretical framework to explain those findings and gaps. This paper thus develops an abstract public choice model. The model features economies of scale and distinguishes urban reduction targets from actual emission reductions. It is able to support some stylized facts from the empirical literature and to resolve some mixed evidence as special cases. Two city types result. One type does not achieve its target, but reduces more emissions than a free-riding city. These relations reverse for the other type. The type determines whether cities with lower abatement costs more likely set targets. A third type does not exist. For both types, cities which set targets and have higher private costs of carbon are more ambitious. If marginal net benefits of mitigation rise with city size, then larger cities gain more from setting climate targets. Findings are contrasted with an alternative model where targets reduce abatement costs. Some effects remain qualitatively the same, while others clearly differ. The model can thus guide further empirical and theoretical work.

Keywords: Local provision of public goods; public choice; voters; lobbyists; cobenefits; private costs of carbon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 Q54 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2023-12-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-hsog/files/5199/BSoE_DP_0029.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Why Local Governments Set Climate Targets: Effects of City Size and Political Costs (2024)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bdp:dpaper:0029

DOI: 10.48462/opus4-5199

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers from Berlin School of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christian Reiter ().