Multilevel governance

Multilevel governance is an approach to governance from the national to local level which provides a platform for fruitful interaction, joint planning and coordination, all of which are essential to the mutual reinforcement of approaches for addressing climate change, sustainable development, implementation and reporting. This solution provides a comprehensive set of guidance to governments (local and national) in implementing and practicing effective multilevel governance. The solution highlights available tools, guidance and good practices with a view to enhancing local climate action and raising the ambitions of national climate commitments – building upon the Paris Agreement rulebook adopted at COP24 in December 2018. The diversity of multilevel governance approaches provided here will make a significant contribution to establishing and supporting vertically integrated climate action and reporting that can in turn support the effective implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Motivation / Relevance

The successful mobilisation of multilevel policy dialogues held under the Talanoa process throughout 2018 resulted in COP24 inviting national governments to consider the outcome, inputs and outputs of the Talanoa Dialogue in preparing their NDCs and in their efforts to enhance pre-2020 implementation and ambition (UNFCCC, 2019). ICLEI played a key role in the Talanoa process by facilitating a total of 60 sessions of Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues in 40 countries (Meyer, Hwang, & Arikan, 2018). Guided by the Paris Agreement recognition on the importance of multilevel governance (UNFCCC, 2016), this solution on multilevel governance will provide further knowledge and insight on how to create synergy through collaborative partnerships as an engine of mainstreaming NDC implementation at all levels of government.

Main impacts

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) informed COP24 with its Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C of the need for strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change in the context of sustainable development. The urgency of climate action needed for aching the 1.5°C pathway calls for a need to scale up the existing mechanisms and/or approaches on vertical integration and multilevel governance, building upon the policy recommendations from the Summary for Urban Policymakers (Bazaz, Bertodi, Buckeridge, & Cartwright, 2018).

Benefits and Co-Benefits

This solution on multilevel governance will serve as an integrated guidebook helping to better understand the mandates, roles and responsibilities of each level of government and how these interact. By providing a review of the existing and relevant institutional, policy, and legislative instruments as part of a governance stocktake, this set of solutions will help all levels of government work towards shared common goals and build mutual trust and confidence in promoting effective NDC implementation and building climate resilience.

Pool of Experts on LinkedIn


For each of the various sectors addressed by the Solutions Gateway, a Pool of Experts thematic subgroup as been created in LinkedIn.

The current Solution links to the following Expert Subgroups:

Please join the subgroup in question and/or use the listed expert entries to contact experts directly. Note that you need to be a registered LinkedIn user to utilise the groups.

Rate this solution

This form gives you the opportunity to evaluate this Solution. Your feedback will help us to improve this Solution for your future use.


Do you find this Solution's structure clear?

Do you find the level of detail of the contents adequate?

Do you intend to implement this Solution?

When? Please indicate the year:

What is the main role you have in your Local Government?

Comments and suggestions:

Share materials and contribute to this Solution

We will be happy to consider the inclusion of your materials in the Solutions Gateway and give visibility and recognition to your Local Government and its experts. This form gives you the opportunity to share with us case studies, tools and other resources that may help to enrich this Solution with additional guidance. Sharing your materials will contribute to experience sharing and peer-learning among Local Governments, and support replication of good practices worldwide.


Briefly describe the material you want to share with us:

Is this material already available online? If yes, please provide the URL. (Note: the Solutions Gateway links to external materials which are already available online. By pointing to the website where the materials are hosted we help to drive traffic to your webpages):

Other comments:


Report your results

This form gives you the opportunity to share with us your action plans and programs, experiences and success with the implementation of this Solution. We will be happy to disseminate your results using ICLEI's web and social media. Your success is our success!


Have you incorporated this Solution into your municipal or project workplan?

With how much private investment? Please indicate USD.

With how much public investment? Please indicate USD.

What benefits have been observed? Please indicate quantitative results if possible.

Other comments

Register to access information!

I have read and agree to the solutions Gateway's Terms of Use.


Login to access information!

Remember me!