Multi-level Governance in (Climate) Action – Co-creating policy solutions to tackle climate change

Multi-Level Governance (MLG) is an essential ingredient for modern, comprehensive policymaking applicable at any level, from local up to EU policies (and, of course, even beyond Europe). It can strengthen a variety of processes, especially supporting and accelerating climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as effectively tackling energy poverty, providing a coherent framework for the just transition and enhancing many other crucial issues. When addressing the scale and scope of solutions necessary to address the complex global challenge of climate change, effective MLG is a key asset to accelerate cost-effective and socially inclusive actions.

The Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy in Europe (Covenant Europe) not only represents an example of coordinated multi-level action itself, but also offers ideas, resources and opportunities to better enable, scale up and mainstream MLG in climate and energy policies across Europe.

By adopting the MLG recommendations found in this publication, policymaking processes will benefit from worthwhile, multi-faceted effects, such as:

• meaningful dialogues through transparent, proactive communication;
• diverse contributions leading to a sense of broad stakeholder ownership;
• long-term legitimacy and broad willingness to engage into the future;
• more cost-effective development/implementation of robust policies;
• more impactful measures aligned with local and regional priorities; and
• stronger synergies and more harmonious alignment of diverse actions.