Unlikely Pioneers

Successful local climate policy can be found in small and less financially strong municipalities as well. However, the attention of research is still largely focused on internationally known large cities. A new project is now looking at the "unlikely pioneers" in structurally disadvantaged communities.This is based on the assumption that insights gained in this way are more easily applicable in practice in most places than those that have emerged under more privileged conditions.

Local governments are playing an increasingly important role in tackling climate change. However, research on local climate policies has so far mostly focused on larger or internationally visible cities. Smaller and less resource-rich municipalities and their administrations have been largely neglected by research, especially structurally disadvantaged and "left behind" places. The project "Unlikely Climate Pioneers: Local Governments' Net Zero Actions in Left Behind Places in the UK and Germany" aims to close this gap. It takes an international comparative look at climate-related activities of disadvantaged local governments in the United Kingdom and Germany.

Specifically, the project has three objectives: It aims to identify "unlikely pioneers", i.e. municipalities or districts that have been able to achieve climate policy successes under difficult structural conditions. It will evaluate the key factors that explain their pioneering role. And finally, it will compare these factors in the two countries under investigation. The project is based on the idea that the strategies and initiatives that have been successful in structurally disadvantaged municipalities can be applied more widely than those that have emerged in classic pioneering municipalities under more privileged conditions. The findings will be widely disseminated to support and encourage practitioners in municipalities in their own climate activities.

The project at the IRS is led by Wolfgang Haupt, head of the research group "Urban Sustainability Transformations". The project is funded by the British Academy through a Leverhulme Small Research Grant. It started at the end of September 2024 and will run until August 2026.