Introduction

The Paris Agreement and IPCC reports (2014, 2018; see also UN 2019) have spurred ambitious climate efforts in many European cities. However, cities in metropolitan areas are dependent upon neighbouring municipalities to curb car use and enhance climate transition (Simoneova et al, 2017; Tønnesen et al, 2019). In addition, land use regulation and funding of transport infrastructure are often split between different governmental levels. Hence, for the cities, goal attainment requires comprehensive multi-level coordination in the metropolitan area. In response, we see new modes of metropolitan coordination emerge that require urban political leaderships to take on new roles (Kern and Alber, 2008; Simoneova et al, 2017; Bulkeley, 2013).

This chapter analyses political climate leadership in one of the Nordic capitals, Oslo. The city of Oslo is in many ways a best case, as it was the European Green Capital in 2019. Given this status, it is interesting to study what leadership strategies have been chosen to pursue climate adaptation and climate mitigation goals. Since core cities in metropolitan areas often are dependent upon neighbourhood municipalities and state and regional actors to ensure effective goal achievement, it is especially interesting to see how the political leadership role is played out in the metropolitan setting. Norway is one of the few countries in Europe to introduce an urban contractual management model to stimulate binding cooperation between actors in metropolitan areas. This chapter also discusses how the political models of local government influence climate leadership. The parliamentary model introduced in Oslo in 1986 deviated from the traditional consensus-oriented alderman model. In the alderman model, the executive board mirrors the composition of the elected council (proportional principle), while in the parliamentary model, the executive derives support from the majority in the council (majoritarian principle), the latter creating a strong executive cabine. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews of key actors in the political and administrative leadership at local, regional and national level in two research projects.

Theoretical background

Urban climate leadership

This chapter aims to bridge the literature on local government and local political leadership (Baldersheim, 2005; Berg and Rao, 2005; Swianiewicz and Teles, 2019; Ladner et al, 2016) with the literature on urban climate governance (Kern and Alber 2008; Bulkeley, 2013), regional governance and metropolitan planning (Zimmermann, 2009; Lackowska and Zimmermann, 2011; Simoneova et al, 2017; Swianiewicz et al 2018).