The research paper aims to reveal lessons from an Australian context regarding opportunities to ratchet-up international climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. Given the global emissions gap that has emerged, there is a need for countries to consider new modes of governance which can catalyse urgent action. The paper proposes Multilevel Governance (MLG) as a solution.

Click here to read my research paper.

MLG has previously been criticised for its tendency to be descriptive rather than explanatory. To address this research gap and to identify opportunities to bring MLG to life, qualitative research was conducted; comprising interviews with seven environmental officers at councils across Australia.

The guiding research questions were:

How can local governments be empowered to deliver strong climate action and collectively advance national climate outcomes?

1. What institutional barriers inhibit local climate action in Australia?
2. What opportunities exist to integrate and coordinate climate policy between and across levels of government?
3. What lessons from the Australian context can inform efforts to ratchet-up national climate commitments?

The research used a qualitative approach to explore how multi-level governance (MLG) can be operationalised to empower local governments in Australia. The process unfolded in three key stages:

My research found that Australian local government officers believe the sector is constrained by a lack of coordination and accountability. Additionally, strengthening the interrelationships between different tiers of government emerged as a key intervention that could unlock local climate action. Several lessons from this research can be applied to international contexts:

1. To bring multilevel governance to life, a combination of top-down and bottom-up governance approaches is necessary.
2. Clear opportunities exist to operationalise multilevel governance.
3. By adopting a systems thinking approach to the development of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), countries could empower local governments and help elevate global climate ambition.

‍

• Choose a starting point and just start walking
  ‍ Relinquish the idea of perfection and start walking forward. You'll iterate and learn as you go. My supervisor, Cathy Oke, encouraged me to do this and her support along the way was incredible.

• ‍Be comfortable in the grey area
  ‍The ability to be in ambiguity, sit with the discomfort of not knowing, and to recognise and grapple with complexity leads to powerful insights and responses. This involves spending more time asking the right questions, deferring judgement, and unpacking and exploring with others (credit to K.A McKercher, author of Beyond Sticky Notes for putting this into useful words)!