INTEGRATING GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS INTO LOCAL MANAGEMENT: THE SCALE ARGUMENT AND THE READINESS ARGUMENT

Due to the growing number of cities and urban residents, cities have increasing contribution to global environmental issues. Many studies pointed out that city administrative level is a crucial and ideal scale to address global issues. Nevertheless, integrating global concerns into local management remains a difficult task for a majority number of cities. Building on existing theoretical and empirical studies, this paper explores the obstacles that impede cities from addressing global environmental concerns, the opportunities of removing the obstacles, and strategies to bring global issues into the local level. The author argues that many of the obstacles are reflections of contradicting perceptions, concerns, interests, and priorities, which are presented in the form of two arguments, namely scale argument and readiness argument, in this paper. The close interlinkages between global and local environmental issues and the potential economic benefits arising from addressing global concerns at the local level may provide opportunities and incentives for cities to take action earlier. The author further argues that while empirical studies in developed cities suggest that the most effective way to get municipal governments to address global concerns is by not talking about the “global”, a too localized policy might not always result in a net gain in a developing city setting.