Legitimacy for climate policies: politics and participation in the Green City of Freiburg

Cities are crucial to mitigating climate change and can serve as sites for innovations, providing examples of ways to conduct effective politics in transport, energy and land-use. What does it take to become a model for climate politics? This article argues that a few innovative measures will not suffice. A common vision based on broad legitimacy is crucial to achieving this position. Using a theoretical framework on input and output legitimacy with the City of Freiburg as the case, this article explores the political dimensions of the climate innovative city. The study shows that a specific kind of “green conservative” politics and a consensual view on climate issues across parties have been very important to creating political legitimacy. This has been supported by extraordinary and extensive citizen engagement in combination with the actual output, i.e. what environmental policies have delivered. The legitimacy for the Green City model also means that Freiburg is viewed as a highly livable city, in turn, creating self-enforcing dynamics that challenge its innovative potential.