U.S. Local Governments and Climate Change: Examining the Acquisition and Use of Research-Based Knowledge in Policy Development

Cumulative research has demonstrated both the reality and potential impacts of global climate change. In this paper, we focus on the nature of climate-related policy development at a subnational level by considering actions undertaken by municipal governments in the United States. Specifically, our research objective is to provide an initial descriptive assessment of how local governments utilize what we term research-based knowledge (RBK) to inform their planning and action strategies around climate change mitigation and adaptation. Doing so is important because local governments in the United States represent a key source of policy innovation on climate change issues and because there is relatively little existing research on exactly how RBK might be utilized in this domain. Our comparative case descriptions from four locations suggest that city officials use RBK in both strategic and political manners. That is, while using existing information and policy networks and generally relying on outside experts for rational comprehensive evaluation, climate-related RBK often both justifies the existing position of local officials (strategic use) and legitimizes previous policy choices (political use). The implications of this initial assessment can assist in testing future theoretic arguments on the exact nature of RBK acquisition and use surrounding climate change policymaking.