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Closing the implementation gap in urban climate policy: Mexico’s public transit buildup

Goedeking, Nicholas
Externe Publikationen (2025)

in: Environmental Politics, first published 09.05.2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2025.2500188
Open access

This paper examines the political conditions conductive to closing the structural implementation gap in urban climate policy, conceptualized as a policy adoption gap and a policy outcome gap. I argue that closing an adoption gap starts with an interaction between subnational policy experimentation and national policy learning, while closing an outcome gap hinges upon effective guardrail institutions guiding political decision-making. To substantiate this argument, I draw on evidence from Mexico’s public transit buildup (2009–2016). I show how the development of bus rapid transit systems in eight cities was driven by a fiscal support policy and enabled by three guardrail institutions: a capable implementing organization, a process for disciplining public authority, and a mechanism for redistributing public outlays. These findings underscore the importance and limits of bottom-up policy change in enabling urban transformations. They suggest that effective urban climate governance relies on institutions that discipline rather than empower urban political actors.

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