Facilitating Policy Change for Low Carbon Mobility: Comparative Analysis of Two City Regions in England, UK (Birmingham and Cambridge), 2021

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A low carbon mobility system is integral to energy demand reduction and essential if the UK wants to meet its target of net-zero emissions by 2050. However, despite the UK having legally binding targets for over a decade, emissions from transport have grown and the sector is now the UK’s largest emitter, accounting for 28% of UK emissions. Therefore urgent and significant policy change is required. However the majority of transport scholarship focuses on technological ‘fixes’ and societal issues (such as behaviour change) for enabling low carbon mobility. Questions of governance – the process through which networks of actors interact to shape outcomes – have largely been ignored. In order to address this research gap, this project combines methodological approaches from political science and engineering to provide an innovative systemic analysis of the low carbon mobility challenge, placing governance front and centre. Through interpretive network and problem analysis, the project compares the multilevel governance of two city regions in England, UK: Birmingham and Cambridge. The study has two key research objectives: 1) To identify and explain the role that multilevel governance plays in shaping local policy responses towards low carbon mobility; making a significant interdisciplinary contribution to knowledge at the nexus of political science, transport studies and energy research. 2) To identify critical governance interventions that are required to support transformative policy change towards low carbon mobility. Providing support to key stakeholders. The findings identify the role multilevel governance plays in influencing local level policy responses towards low carbon mobility. In doing so, the project provides insights into the ways current UK governance arrangements can be supported to enable more effective local policy responses towards low carbon mobility.

Urgent and significant change in transport policy is required if the UK wants to meet its net-zero ambitions. This project uses interpretive network and problem analysis to identify the role multi-level governance plays in influencing local-level policy responses towards low carbon mobility. The project compares the multi-level governance of two city regions in England, UK: Birmingham and Cambridge, using original data collected through participatory mapping workshops and semi-structured interviews. In doing so, the project will provide important and timely recommendations for ways current UK governance arrangements can be supported to enable more effective local policy responses towards low carbon mobility. The research addresses four key questions: 1) Who are the most important actors in multi-level governance networks for enabling low carbon mobility? 2) How do UK multi-level governance networks facilitate or constrain policy responses to low carbon mobility? 3) How do actors, embedded in UK multi-level governance contexts, interpret the nature of the low carbon mobility challenge? 4) In what ways can multi-level governance networks be supported to enable transformative policy change towards low carbon mobility?