The Role of Regions in Climate Change Policy

Abstract

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing human kind. Urgent policy action is needed. Climate change policies are mainly being discussed at international level by means of the United Nations Conventions and the Kyoto Protocol. However, the bulk of the impact will be felt at regional and local level. And these levels of governance hold many of the competences for implementing policy actions. Regional governments are important agents and should, therefore, be incorporated into the negotiation rounds so that their voices can be heard. This paper illustrates the important role of regions in climate policies and considers many of the policy instruments being designed and implemented. More than 20 major regions are showcased here. Finally, the case of Basque climate policy is described to shed some light as to what regions could do.