How is feasibility in local climate politics constructed? Balancing between appropriateness and consequence in advancing urban low-carbon plans
Journal article, Peer reviewed
Published version

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https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3170375Utgivelsesdato
2024Metadata
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- Department of Geography [698]
- Registrations from Cristin [11366]
Originalversjon
Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning. 2024, 26 (6), 643-655. 10.1080/1523908X.2024.2413616Sammendrag
How does ambitious climate action become politically feasible? The literature has tended to understand political feasibility through interactions between citizens and governing institutions, conditioned by the various costs and benefits for the actors involved. Instead, by considering the work of bureaucratic actors, this paper examines the practices of constructing feasibility in local climate planning. We draw on sociological institutionalism, focusing on the dynamics of fine-tuning between logics of appropriateness and consequence in achieving what is deemed ‘politically feasible.’ Taking climate politics in the City of Bergen (Norway) as a case study, this paper advances that what is deemed politically feasible is a product of calibrating (1) relevant policies with the city’s climate ambitions, (2) specific actions with open and inclusive processes, and (3) radical and ambitious solutions with the city’s current political climate. We discuss the implications of these results for the legitimization of climate planning locally.