The shifting role of cities in the global climate change regime: From Paris to Pittsburgh and back?

• Author: Helmut Philipp Aust
• Published date: 01 April 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12272
• Date: 01 April 2019

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The shifting role of cities in the global climate change regime:

From Paris to Pittsburgh and back?

Helmut Philipp Aust

Correspondence

Email: helmut.aust@fu-berlin.de In recent years cities have asserted themselves as relevant actors in the global cli-

mate change regime. International law practice and scholarship has so far only partly

embraced this development. The self‐asserting move of cities on the global level has

been accompanied by a rhetoric according to which States would have failed to live

up to their responsibilities with respect to the fight against climate change. Instead,

cities would be well‐positioned to fill this governance gap, in particular through glo-

bal networks such as ICLEI and C40. This contribution discusses how this narrative

is affected by the entry into force of the Paris Agreement on climate change. This

was seen as a milestone for the global climate change regime. The Paris Agreement

and the decision adopting it are also evidence for a cautious embrace of the import-

ance of cities and other subnational authorities in this field. Yet, new questions arise

after the announcement by the United States of their intent to withdraw from the

Paris Agreement. This has generated more attention than ever for what cities and

other subnational authorities can do in this field. At the same time, the struggle

between the US federal executive and US cities is emblematic for a wider debate

on the future of the international (legal) order: how will the balance between States

as central actors of the international system on the one hand and an increasingly

assertive league of cities and subnational authorities be struck?

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INTRODUCTION

‘I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.’

1

With these words, President Donald Trump announced his intention

on 1 June 2017 for the United States to withdraw from the Paris

Agreement on climate change. Although it remains to be seen

whether, when and how the United States will formally withdraw

from the Paris Agreement, the announcement has been a watershed.

The adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 was a landmark in the

global fight against climate change.

2

Despite numerous uncertainties

about the scope and bindingness of the Agreement, it was hailed as

a much‐needed step forward after the long deadlock in the

negotiations for an international agreement on the mitigation of and

adaptation to climate change. The fact that the Agreement entered

into force already one year after its adoption was heralded as a

further sign that things were moving in the right direction in the glo-

bal climate change regime. Amidst numerous signs of doom and

decline, the Paris Agreement thus became a rare symbol of hope in

today's international relations. The Trump declaration has cast a

shadow of doubt on the fortunes of the Agreement and on the ques-

tion of whether it will be able to set humanity on a path towards an

effective implementation of measures needed to curb climate change

and keep its potentially disastrous consequences under control.

As a side effect of the announced US withdrawal, a specific kind

of actor in the global climate change regime has received even more

attention than before: cities and subnational authorities. Immediately

following the announcement by President Trump, representatives of

US cities, states and business leaders announced that they would

submit a plan to the United Nations Framework Convention on

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1

The White House, ‘Statement by President Trump on the Paris Climate Accord’(1 June

2017) <https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/06/01/statement-president-

trump-paris-climate-accord>.

2

Paris Agreement (adopted 12 December 2015, entered into force 4 November 2016) 55

ILM 740.

DOI: 10.1111/reel.12272

RECIEL. 2019;28:57–66. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel

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