The Role of Regional Governments in Climate Change Policy

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing us, and it requires urgent policy action. Although climate change policies are mainly being discussed at international level by means of the United Nations Conventions and the Kyoto Protocol, the bulk of the impact will be felt at regional and local level. Regional and local governments are thus important actors. Moreover, regional governments in many parts of the world hold a wide range of the competences to implement policy actions for both adaptation and mitigation. This paper illustrates the important role of regions in climate policies and considers many of the policy instruments being designed and implemented. The paper describes 23 leading regions in climate policy. Finally, the case of Basque climate policy is described as an example of an industrial region in Europe where the degree of decentralization is significant. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.