This study investigates the available options for German municipalities as active agents in climate change policy. If global goals, Europe-wide goals, and national goals for the reduction of CO2 are to be reached, it is imperative that appropriate measures be taken at local level. The choices for municipalities in this regard are determined primarily by the responsibilities they have within the structure of the German government, by their respective financial situations, and increasingly, by European Union directives. Against this backdrop, section two of the study will elaborate the legal principles underlying municipal climate protection activities, will identify various roles that municipalities can have in climate policy action, and will more closely illuminate individual areas of activity. Moreover, in light of the progressive 'Europeanization' of local governments, section two will present all three transnational city networks devoted to climate change policy, in which European municipalities have organized, in order to have a forum for the exchange of ideas and information, and in order to have a vehicle by which to lobby the political institutions of the EU directly. Section three of the study will investigate the present status of local climate protection measures in German cities. This investigation is based upon a comprehensive survey conducted via guideline-supported telephone interviews. The point was to determine how municipalities use their available options and what role transnational networking plays in this. Section four presents a qualitative-comparative analysis of three successful cases in the area of local climate protection, namely, the cities of Heidelberg, Frankfurt am Main, and Munich. Case studies provide the comparative data which, first and foremost, cover in-depth the institutional basis, capacities, main areas of activity, and roles of transnational city networks in local climate change policy. The final comparative analysis permits the elaboration of general conditions for successful local-level policy and presents specific strategies which municipalities have used in reaction to the overall problem situation. The fifth and final section of this study summarizes these results, draws some comprehensive conclusions, and presents some perspectives for local climate change policy in Germany. (Author's abstract)

The paper attempts to shed some light on the kind of role equity norms play in German sustainable development policy and the related discourse, focusing on the issue of global climate change. Especially the tensions between the public discussion of equity among and within nations are investigated. Attitudes and commitments of the general public and the main actor groups towards global climate change policies and related equity issues are analyzed. One of the central findings of the analysis is that the norm of global fairness enjoys broad (rhetorical) support by all actor groups and the public. However, the support by the public must be characterized as uninformed consent because the effects of the various global climate policies within Germany are either not discussed or played down by the proponents of a progressive climate change policy. The debates are framed by two different but overlapping discourses informed by the concepts of sustainable development or ecological modernization. While with respect to global climate change policy the sustainable development discourse dominates at the programmatic level (concerned with norms, values and fairness principles), it is clearly the concept of ecological modernization that underlies the concrete policies. (Author's abstract)