Nicholas Goedeking’s Post

🚀 New Publication 🥳   Very happy to share my latest article, just published in Environmental Politics!   What can we learn from historical cases where countries successfully closed the implementation gap in urban climate policy?   That’s the core question that drove this project. To explore it, I traced how and why nearly a dozen cities in Mexico successfully built bus rapid transit systems between 2009 and 2016.   I find that this policy outcome was driven by an innovative fiscal support policy from Mexico’s federal finance ministry, which, in turn, was inspired by a pilot project pioneered by Mexico City.   These findings challenge two common assumptions in urban climate governance:   1️⃣ Bottom-up innovation is crucial—but not enough. In Mexico, national fiscal support was essential for enabling policy change in cities beyond its capital. 2️⃣ Empowering cities isn’t always the answer. In this case, success hinged on strong accountability mechanisms—not more autonomy.   These insights may offer practical guidance for other governments seeking to learn from Mexico’s experience and foster sustainable urban development. 🚍 🏙️ 💚   🙏 Huge thanks to the many experts who generously shared their time and insights with me, including Marco Priego, Adriana de Almeida Lobo, Arturo Ardila-Gomez, David Louis Uniman, Julio César Hernández Muñoz, Fernando Páez, Germán Freiberg, Ulises Navarro, David Escalante Sánchez, and Dr. Reyes Juárez Del Angel.   Special thanks as well to Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) for supporting this research.   📘 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/egRK2zbn   #UrbanClimatePolicy #ClimateGovernance #EnvironmentalPolitics #Mexico #SustainableCities #BRT