Why do some communities develop better environmental governance outcomes than others? Past research tends to focus on national governments, explaining how states with better environmental governance outcomes tend to have more resources, such as stronger government capacity, or fewer obstacles, like fewer ties to major polluting industries. This study tests whether the social capital and community-building policies of local governments improve their environmental governance outcomes. This mixed-methods study looks at the case of all 1741 Japanese municipalities from 2005 to 2017, modeling greenhouse gas emissions across 4 different sectors of the economy, paired with three case studies of high performing municipalities. This study finds that cities with stronger bonding and bridging social capital bolster the institutional capacity of cities, improving the effectiveness of their emissions reduction programs. By leveraging citizens’ social ties, cities can accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions while improving civic engagement locally.

为什么有些社区比其他社区有更好的环境治理成果？过去的研究倾向于集中于国家政府，解释了具有更好环境治理结果的州如何倾向于拥有更多的资源，例如更强大的政府能力，或更少的障碍，例如与主要污染行业的联系减少。这项研究检验了地方政府的社会资本和社区建设政策是否能改善其环境治理成果。这项混合方法研究以2005年至2017年的所有1741个日本城市为例，对四个经济部门的温室气体排放进行建模，并结合三个高绩效城市的案例研究。这项研究发现，具有更强大的联系和桥接社会资本的城市可以增强城市的机构能力，提高其减排计划的有效性。通过利用公民的社会关系，城市可以在减少温室气体排放的同时，提高当地的公民参与度。