The multilevel governance of polarised climate politics: how a pioneer city navigates a dynamic political context

Climate change governance entails many types of actors, requiring collaboration across different sectors, levels, and geographical spaces. However, this collaboration does not occur in a vacuum; it is impacted by political contexts, whereby actors at different levels of government may hold different priorities and rationales, and work at different speeds. Ultimately, this dynamic multi-level context can complicate long-term planning and increase political risk, yet there has been little research on politically discordant levels within studies on multi-level governance, especially in unitary countries. We argue that cities can act unilaterally and collaboratively both nationally and internationally to seek to overcome low support, delay or even obstruction on climate mitigation from the national government. By examining how multilevel governance and political context shapes climate action in pioneer city Stockholm, the article contributes to the climate governance literature by outlining strategies for advancing climate action in dynamic political contexts.