Are European cities achieving emission reduction commitments? A comparative analysis under the Covenant of Mayors initiative

In the last two decades, a growing number of cities worldwide have committed to address climate change (CC) and have to reduce CO2eq emissions. Different policies have been implemented at the urban scale to enhance a low-carbon transition. While sharing a common goal, local CC policies are site-specific and are influenced by factors such as territorial peculiarities, socio-economic characteristics, and city governments’ priorities. Despite a wide literature on urban climate change mitigation, there is a lack of assessment of the actual results achieved by urban mitigation policies and the factors that affect emission reduction performances in cities. The paper aims to contribute to the literature by assessing the drivers and leverages of CO2eq emission reductions in a sample of 1354 cities participating in the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) initiative. An Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression has been performed to identify the influence of several variables on the reduction of cities’ CO2eq emissions over time. The regression results show that actions have a different level of effectiveness depending on the sectors and policy instruments. The paper provides relevant insights for scholars and local decision-makers about the most effective policy instruments that can be used in cities to reduce emissions.

LUCCHITTA Benedetta;  PALERMO Valentina;  MELICA Giulia;  MOLTENI Tania;  BURRO Andrea;  BERTOLDI Paolo;  CROCI Edoardo; 

2024-03-20

CELL PRESS

JRC132944

2405-8440 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844023106311,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC132944,   

10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23423 (online),