Towards a politics of urban climate responsibility: Insights from Hong Kong and Singapore

Abstract

Cities are important sites for interrogating the social, scalar and spatial dynamics that underpin climate responsibility. To date, however, there is limited theoretical and empirical understanding about how discourses, practices and politics of climate responsibility might be enacted in the urban context. This gap is particularly significant in the Asia Pacific – a region characterised by high rates of economic growth and rapid urbanisation alongside extreme poverty and exposure to the effects of climate change. This article explores the politics of urban climate responsibility in two cities – Hong Kong and Singapore. Based on empirical research with NGOs, it considers if and how cities have a responsibility to act on climate change, how such responsibility may be configured within the city, and the role of international and regional dynamics in creating and maintaining climate responsibility. The article reframes the contested and contingent geographies of urban climate responsibility through the dimensions of attribution, production and spatialisation before drawing out implications for climate justice and resilience in the Asia Pacific region.

Mobilising change in cities: A capacity framework for understanding urban energy transition pathways

“…In empirical terms, scholars have highlighted how grassroots energy initiatives and the politics in Hamburg (re‐)shaped the city's energy infrastructure ownership and energy policies (Becker et al, 2016; Becker, Kunze, et al, 2017), as well as actions, relations and local dependencies within the governance of UES in shaping the transition process (Cheung & Oßenbrügge, 2020). Research in Hong Kong has focused on local policies and politics within the context of urban climate governance (Cheung & Fuller, 2022; Francesch‐Huidobro, 2012; Fuller, 2020; Mah et al, 2021), as well as energy autarky and dilemmas creating path dependencies and limited options for change for the city's energy policy and development (Holley & Lecavalier, 2017; Moss & Francesch‐Huidobro, 2016). Whilst we find the emphasis on specific social, political, and infrastructural changes in driving the process of UET useful, we argue that the formation of UET pathways needs to be understood through identifying the key factors, processes, and implications that drive or hinder change within the UES in a more holistic way.…”

“…Apart from being the gatekeeper in the SCAs to mobilise the expansion of natural gas usage and moderate the feed in of rooftop solar to the city's electricity system (Cheung & Fuller, 2022), the city government is also responsible for executing the city's Climate Action Plan (CAP), which was first launched in 2017 (Environment Bureau, 2017). Although the city government is considered to be the most influential actor in governing climate change and energy development in the city, it has long been criticised for its lack of commitment to combating climate change and the absence of leadership capacity (Francesch‐Huidobro, 2014; Fuller, 2020; Mah & Hills, 2016). For example, the CAP appears to be a mainly bureaucratic exercise as it is limited to conventional command and control measures (such as replacing coal with natural gas) and voluntary measures to encourage input from other sectors (such as buildings and transport) (Hong Kong SAR Government, 2017a).…”

Rethinking the potential of collaboration for urban climate governance: The case of Hong Kong

“…Hong Kong represents an important case study for two reasons: first, as noted above, climate and energy policy in the city is based on collaboration but has to date generated limited outcomes, highlighting the value of empirical work to explore the effectiveness of collaboration in practice. In addition, there remains a lack of empirical research from Asia in the field of climate governance (Fuller, 2020; Ren & Luger, 2015), to which this study also contributes.…”

“…Within the city's energy system, there are two de facto monopolies in the electricity market – CLP and HKE 1 – which have dominated their demarcated geographical areas since electricity was first supplied to the city in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Environmental NGOs and business organisations also play a significant role in adopting voluntary actions and shaping the climate agenda for the city (Chu & Schroeder, 2010; Fuller, 2020).…”

Governing resilient cities for planetary flourishing in the Asia-Pacific

“…Sara Fuller (2020) paints a very different picture of Hong Kong in her comparative study of climate responsibility vis-à-vis the city-state of Singapore. Unlike Singapore, where Fuller’s interview respondents were less concerned about global warming because they believed their government was prepared, advocacy NGOs in Hong Kong actively engaged with the corporate sector to develop a city-wide climate response because they felt their role was vital in reconfiguring climate governance.…”