Work

Local government climate change strategies: A systematic literature review

Year: 2026

Type: review

Abstract: Local governments are at the forefront of contemporary responses and localised community impacts of climate change through a range of strategies. Given their proximity to the community, local governments possess a nuanced understanding of the consequences of climate change on local communities and implement strategies to mitigate these challenges. Despite increasing research on local climate initiatives, how academic literature conceptualises and evaluates the effectiveness of these strategies remains a pressing issue. This study adopts a systematic literature review method to evaluate the extent to which contemporary literature explains how local government strategies respond effectively to climate change. In this context, 117 papers published between 2005 and 2024 were examined using online Covidence software to screen and focus on seven key themes related to climate change strategies: renewable energy integration, climate action plans, multi-stakeholder collaboration, policy integration, innovative technologies, resilient infrastructure development, and climate risk assessment. We found that there are ten prevailing theories used to understand local government climate change responses including legitimacy and stakeholder theories. The analysis focuses on how previous studies operationalise and evidence successful responses. This review adopts an international perspective to identify broader thematic patterns, governance challenges, and implementation issues that shape local government climate change strategies across different institutional settings. The findings underscore the ongoing financial and institutional challenges, inconsistent stakeholder participation, and reliance on descriptive assessments over those based on performance metrics. This study synthesises thematic areas and cross-cutting enabling conditions to understand the effectiveness evaluation of local government climate strategies.

Source: Cities

DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2026.107567

Authors: Saidu Musa, Mansi Mansi, Rakesh Pandey, Joseph Crawford

Institution: University of Tasmania

Language: English

Topic: Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Climate action, Sustainable cities and communities, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,000