The IGU-CGoG Action Plan on 'Local Governance and Climate Emergency' seeks to address, but is not limited to, the following research questions:
I. Local Government Mitigation Policy - Reducing GHG Emissions
1. To what extent the current Local Government policies reflect the ambition of the Paris Agreement, namely the ambition of national government commitments to achieve its Paris Agreement goals?
2. What has been the path followed by Local Government for a low-carbon transition? What strategies and policy measures have been adopted by Local Government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
3. What has been the role of Local Government in the promotion of universal access to clean energies?
II. Local Government Adaptation Policy - Responding to Climate Change Impacts
4. What strategies, plans, policy measures, and actions have been adopted by local government to address Climate Change impacts on the environment, society and on the local economy?
5. What strategies, plans, policy measures, and actions are local government employing to address the socially unequal impacts of Climate Change? And how equitable have been climate change mitigation and adaptation policies implemented by Local Government?
6. What sort of accelerated adaptation policies have been implemented by Local Government to face the higher temperatures, the altered weather patterns, the more frequent extreme weather events, and the related economic losses?
7. What has been the response of Local Government to the rising average temperatures and to the altered rainfall patterns, in particular in tackling the food and water insecurity in certain regions of the world?
III. Local Government Institutions, Finance and Policy Arrangements
8. What changes have been introduced in central-local relations (decentralization / re-centralization) and what innovations in multi-level governance have been tried to tackle more effectively the Climate Emergency?
9. What has been the role of inter-municipal cooperation and metropolitan governance in this context?
10. As Climate Change does not respect national borders, what sort of coordinate response has been implemented by Local Government through cross-border municipal and regional cooperation? How is it reflected in Local Government climate change adaptation policies?
11. What lessons from current local government engagement in multi-scalar and cross-sectoral coordination in the context of Climate Change mitigation and adaptation policies?
12. How can Local Government mobilise the financial resources necessary for an effective response to the climate emergency? And what capacity have Local Finance Systems to support the required substantial and sustained investment in a low carbon transition?
13. What will be the impact of the borrowing Local Government have had to resort during the Covid-19 pandemic on their capacity to sustain the energy transition and the move towards a low-carbon economy?
14. How do local governments address multiple global challenges concurrently (Covid-19 Pandemic; Biodiversity Crisis; Climate Emergency...)?
15. How is Local Government Post-Covid 19 Recovery policy related to the policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Or is it mainly a carbon-intensive local government recovery policy?