PhD: Planning to transform

Many cities, both in the world and in Norway, have significantly more ambitious goals than the national climate goals and are highlighted as particularly important actors leading the way in climate change. Planning is one of the most important tools cities have for shaping societal development.

Norwegian municipalities make climate plans that show how the city or village plan to cut emissions and prepare for a changing climate. This dissertation takes a closer look at the role that climate plans and climate planning can play in the major change process that climate change entails. The dissertation shows that local climate change is complex and points out that in order to understand whether it is possible to plan for change, one must look more closely at several aspects of these processes.

Trondheim, Bergen and Stavanger are all cities with very ambitious climate plans - and they are also the cases in this study. By looking at both municipal administrative processes, political argumentation and connections with larger processes, the dissertation provides a broader picture of what role a climate plan plays and can play. The municipal organizations must be restructured for new ways of working, assessing consequences and highlighting goal conflicts. The dissertation points out that it is important to look more closely at how actors understand both climate change as a phenomenon and problem, and how it in turn is related to local history, culture and economy - to understand what can be accepted as solutions, and thus how climate change can carried out.