Overcoming gridlock? The role of city networks in transnational cooperation on climate mitigation

Abstract Local governments engage in combating global warming by cooperating in transnational city networks. These networks are often hailed as an alternative to the alleged gridlock of interstate cooperation. Still, it remains unclear if and how the institutional characteristics of city networks can overcome this gridlock. Therefore, we analyze to what extent cooperation in city networks faces the same institutional challenges as those related to interstate collaboration. Our research focuses on six climate networks and draws on 33 in‐depth interviews, which are analyzed through qualitative directed content analysis. Three findings stand out. First, networks struggle with growing multipolarity, as they lack the capacity to engage with all members. While adopting a strongly regionalized approach, the necessary centralization to efficiently coordinate regional suboffices seems lacking. Second, targets tend to be regarded as a general direction rather than proper objectives that must be implemented within a specific time frame. Third, city officials have a less clear overview of the landscape of networks than network employees. At the same time, they indicate that the proliferation of networks complicates the internal organization of networking activities. Taken together, we conclude that climate city networks do not necessarily allow structurally avoiding the causes of interstate gridlock.