Urban areas account for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions, and increasingly, it is city governments that are adopting and implementing climate mitigation policies. Many municipal governments have joined two different global city networks that aim to promote climate policy development at the urban scale, and there is qualitative evidence that such networks play an important role in motivating cities to adopt climate policies and helping them to implement them. Our study objective is to test this proposition quantitatively, making use of a global database on cities’ environmental policy adoption, and also taking into account a large number of other factors that could play a role in climate policy adoption. Controlling for these other factors, we find that network membership does make a significant difference in the number of different measures that city governments adopt. We also find that there are significant differences between the two different networks, suggesting that the nature of the services that such networks offer their members can play an important role. Our findings lead to the provision of a set of global mitigation strategies: First of all, joining the city networks can lead to a generation of global strategies which can result into climate mitigation benefits. However, cities are required to select the network which provides proper tailor made policies. Second, in the absence of concrete international commitments at the local level, city networks lay the ground for global governance and enable cities to adopt policies independently and proactively. Third, consideration of co-benefits of climate policies can optimize the development of global strategies.

中文翻译：

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对象征主义的生存：跨国市政网络对城市气候政策创新和采用的作用。

城市地区占全球温室气体排放量的绝大部分，越来越多的城市政府正在采用和实施减缓气候变化的政策。许多市政府已经加入了两个不同的全球城市网络，旨在促进城市规模的气候政策发展，并且有定性证据表明，这种网络在激励城市采用气候政策并帮助他们实施气候政策中发挥着重要作用。我们的研究目标是通过使用有关城市环境政策采用情况的全球数据库，并考虑可能在气候政策采用过程中起作用的许多其他因素，对这一主张进行定量测试。控制这些其他因素，我们发现，网络成员资格确实在市政府采取的不同措施的数量上产生了重大差异。我们还发现，两个不同的网络之间存在显着差异，这表明此类网络为其成员提供的服务的性质可以发挥重要作用。我们的发现导致提供了一套全球缓解战略：首先，加入城市网络可以带来一系列全球战略，这些战略可以带来减缓气候变化的好处。但是，要求城市选择提供适当的量身定制的政策的网络。其次，由于缺乏地方一级的具体国际承诺，城市网络为全球治理奠定了基础，并使城市能够独立主动地采取政策。第三，