In 1993 Portland, Oregon, became one of the first cities in the world to address climate change by committing to specific, citywide reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. In a policy entitled the Carbon Dioxide Reduction Strategy, the city outlined its intention to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% of 1990 levels by 2010, primarily by channelling funds toward residential and commercial energy efficiency projects. By 2005, although unlikely to reach its initial emissions reduction target, Portland had succeeded in reducing its per capita emissions by 12.5% and, despite 27% population growth, managed to stabilize its overall emissions at 1990 levels (City of Portland, 2005). Perhaps more significantly, Portland's initiative has inspired other cities to make similar moves. By 2007, in response to appeals from cities like Portland and Seattle, over 500 US cities had agreed to cut local carbon dioxide emissions by 7% of 1990 levels by 2012. (1) The numbers involved are partly symbolic: they mimic the US's now-abrogated commitments in the Kyoto Protocol, the major international agreement on climate change. Indeed, the adoption of municipal climate change policies is intended explicitly to exert pressure on a national government that is viewed as unresponsive to its citizens' ecological concerns. (2)

The South Durban Basin on the eastern coast of South Africa is home to both a large-scale petrochemical industry and a highly mobilized residential community. In a conflict cemented by apartheid-era planning, the community's campaigns to improve local air quality provide a test case for the value of conflict for participatory democratic structures. In the context of the work of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the South Durban Basin also provides an opportunity to push the boundaries of the established links between participation and the design and implementation of responses to a changing climate. Contributing to one of the main themes of the symposium, this article argues that the focus on collaboration and compromise within studies of governance and participation overlooks both the reality of conflict and its potentially positive effects. Addressing this requires particular attention to how power relationships influence processes of governance, and the role of civil society in balancing the influence of the private sector on the state. It also calls for a better understanding of conflict and collaboration as mutually re-enforcing elements of an ongoing and dynamic political process. Together, the elements of this critique help to build a more nuanced view of participatory urban governance: one that both better describes and may better facilitate the ability of urban populations to collectively, effectively and rapidly respond to the challenges of a changing climate. Copyright (c) 2010 The Author. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research(c) 2010 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

IntroductionParticipatory local democracy has inspired hopes, in both social and environmental policy circles, that popular participation beyond the ballot box will produce more just and environmentally sound development. Radical bioregionalists like Carr (2004) have proffered their support, as have organs of global trade liberalization like the World Bank (1997;2000a;2000b) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2001). In its 2007 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also began discussing the merits of participation (Sathaye et al, 2007;Yohe et al, 2007). Agreement among such an ideologically diverse set of actors calls for closer scrutiny of`participatory governance'. My intent in this paper is to review the literatures surrounding the social and environmental impacts of participatory processes, and to look critically at claims that participation can help local governments address climate change in the context of uneven development.Drawing from the work of Michel Foucault and Ju« rgen Habermas, as well as recent work from the fields of urban and environmental planning, I parse the various forms that participation can assume in order to develop a clearer understanding of its broad appeal. This provides context for a case study of the coastal city of Durban, South Africa, a city that has committed significant resources to designing participatory processes that address the apartheid legacy of social and economic inequality. (1) As part of these processes, it has also declared an increased commitment to environmental sustainability (eThekwini, 2006). In addition, the city is home to an active civil society community which pursues its aims both within and outside of these formal channels. Durban is therefore an excellent site to observe the relationship between consensus and conflict within participatory planning. It also makes Durban a productive location

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