Innovations in Urban Climate Governance Voluntary Programs for Low-Carbon Buildings and Cities Business and Public Policy Series

Building on unique data, this book analyses the efficacy of a prominent climate change mitigation strategy: voluntary programs for sustainable buildings and cities. It evaluates the performance of thirty-five voluntary programs from the global north and south, including certification programs, knowledge networks, and novel forms of financing. The author examines them through the lens of club theory, urban transformation theory, and diffusion of innovations theory. Using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) the book points out the opportunities and constraints of voluntary programs for decarbonising the built environment, and argues for a transformation of their use in climate change mitigation. The book will appeal to readers interested in sustainable city planning, climate change mitigation, and voluntarism as an alternative governance mechanism for achieving socially and environmentally desirable outcomes. The wide diversity of cases from the global north and south generate new insights, and offers practical guidelines for designing effective programs.

Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Why focus on voluntary programmes for sustainable buildings and cities?; 2. The sustainable building challenge: contextualising the problem; 3. A world of voluntary programs: prevailing and advanced theoretical perspectives; 4. Bridging supply and demand; 5. Generating and sharing knowledge; 6. Providing funds; 7. Separating the wheat from the chaff: a crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA); 8. Voluntary programs for sustainable cities elsewhere: certification and classification in India, Malaysia, and Singapore; 9. Beyond the leadership delusion: what role for voluntary programs in decarbonising buildings and cities?; Appendix A. Country snapshots; Appendix B. Voluntary program snapshots; Appendix C. Application of QCA in this book and an additional fsQCA; Appendix D. Interviews; References; Index.

Jeroen van der Heijden is an associate professor of urban climate governance at the Australian National University. He aims to improve local, national and international outcomes of urban governance on some of the most pressing challenges of our time: climate change and urbanisation.