This publication focuses on cooperation across government levels – national governments, federal states, counties, provinces, districts, cities and municipalities. The term ‘Collaborative Climate Action’ (CCA) refers to cooperation across government levels on climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. When all levels of government utilize their competences, tasks, budgets, experts, contacts and cooperation partners in a targeted and coordinated manner, they can achieve more together than each actor alone. At the same time, joint action prevents the creation of contradictory incentives and can save significant resources, whether it be money, personnel or time – as those involved support one another.
Cooperation can be sporadic, voluntary and temporary. Its real strength as a politically intended, well-organized and long-term approach comes to the fore when constitutions and laws define competences, and rules for cooperation and predictable procedures determine and define how joint targets can be reached. CCA thus contributes to coherence and consistency in climate policy, from the international to the local level (i.e. on the ground). Many refer to this as the ‘architecture of climate policy’ or climate governance.