DECENTRALIZATION AND CLIMATE POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: CHALLENGES OF MULTI-LEVEL GOVERNANCE IN DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

Abstract

In the developing world, decentralization is a common agenda to enhance the delivery of services to the people, and accountability in democracy. Localizing the decision-making process, adapting to the context and speeding up the implementation are expected in the climate arena. But there are still mixed empirical results. The paper explores the implications of various types of decentralization (administrative, fiscal and political) in combination with the multi-level governance (MLG) on the climate policy implementation in developing economies. We build on the literature of the MLG and polycentric governance using these two to construct an analytical framework connecting the assignment of authority, intergovernmental coordination, local capacity, and accountability to climate outcomes. We use a synthetic comparative approach to Africa, Asian, and Latin American implementation evidence to point out seven common implementation bottlenecks: fragmented mandates, unfunded or underfunded mandates, weak horizontal and vertical coordination, capacity shortages, data and monitoring gaps, political economy constraints (short-termism and elite capture) and limited social inclusion. Our reformation program would consist of climate-budget tagging, performance-based transfers, intergovernmental compacts, metropolitan and watersheds institutions, open climate data and result-based monitoring, polycentric experimentation with learning loops and institutionalized social responsibility. Our claim is that climate resilience will be provided by decentralization, only when it is incorporated in coherent MLG configurations, which combine incentives and resources, develop local capability, and institutionalize learning and accountability across scales.