The evolving role of climate commissions in the mi(d)st of unambitious UK climate policy, urban climate governance experimentation and place-based climate action

Source abstract

Climate commissions have emerged across UK cities as new forms of urban climate governance experimentation, as national climate policy is marked by stagnation, political volatility, and a narrow focus on Net Zero. Drawing on a mixed-method approach, this article examines how climate commissions advance urban climate experimentation through: (1) place-shaping and (2) facilitating more networked, inclusive and pluralistic engagement. Commissions can contribute to urban climate governance through place-shaping practices, knowledge exchange, and creating collaborative spaces between public, private, and third sectors. However, our findings reveal how their experimental potential is limited by constrained resources, uneven legitimacy, and the scalar dominance of national Net Zero policy discourse, which shapes local priorities and restricts opportunities for transformative, justice-oriented climate action. Rather than being fully autonomous sites of innovation, most commissions operate as hybrid governance intermediaries, supporting local authorities, translating national policy expectations, and cultivating context-specific climate responses. The ability of commissions to drive ambitious, equitable, and place-sensitive climate action depends on addressing structural and scalar constraints within the UK’s evolving climate policy regime. This article also contributes to wider urban theory, revealing how the governance innovation promise of such urban experiments also exposes and reproduces deeply embedded scalar, political, and institutional tensions.