The power of people in urban climate change mitigation
PhD candidate Corey McPherson is researching how local leadership is the critical component in mobilizing climate action.
Estimated reading time: 1:35
Urban areas are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, making them key battlegrounds in the fight against global warming. While technological innovations often dominate discussions about climate solutions, the leaders who champion these initiatives—including individuals, community groups and municipal officials—play an equally critical role.
Corey McPherson, a doctoral candidate in Sustainability Management, is working with the Municipal Net-Zero Action Research Partnership to research the role that leadership plays in implementing climate action. “Urban leaders can be pivotal in implementing climate solutions locally where change is more manageable and results are visible,” McPherson explains.
As an initial step toward his PhD, McPherson conducted a systematic literature review on climate change mitigation leadership in cities.
Urban leaders can be pivotal in implementing climate solutions locally where change is more manageable and results are visible.
He selected thirty peer-reviewed studies from North America, Europe and Asia. Leadership manifested within these projects in five main themes, including the use of policy and leadership, empowering others to enact change, knowledge leadership and idea generation, command and control leadership, and mayoral and political leadership. Similarities and differences were identified between each project, and between each geographic region.
McPherson also identified what the enablers of leadership were within each study. For most of these projects, leadership was made possible not by one individual, but by multiple actors working towards a common goal. This included collaborative governance, horizontal and vertical coordination efforts, multilevel governance influence, and the role of coalitions/private sector partnerships.
Lastly, this research identified gaps within the urban climate leadership literature. These gaps included blending different leadership theories and including more research on mid-sized and small cities.
The completion of this systematic literature review has guided the development of McPherson’s doctoral research by increasing the understanding of leadership strategies in urban climate mitigation. Next, research will be completed to explore how Canadian municipalities approach climate action while balancing competing priorities and constraints.
“I aim to translate my findings into practical insights that can guide policy makers and organizations in supporting climate change mitigation at the local level” says McPherson.
The research, Leadership and Climate Change Mitigation: A Systematic Literature Review, authored by McPherson and Dr. Amelia Clarke, was recently published in Climate.