photo credit: doug.siefken

Another issue puts this into a wider context. Back in 2005 141 US Mayors  signed the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.  By 2007, 500 US Mayors had signed. The pact agreed to aim to meet Kyoto limits and was a slap in the face to the Bush administration, who throughout its 8 years opposed or held up any serious Climate Change agreement.

What marks both out is their decision to create policy outside of national Government and beyond their national borders  indicating a remarkable shift in traditional political power structures. While the US has always had stronger support for the Mayoral system than the UK, the gap may be coming to an end as a new era of urban self-determination could become increasingly prominent in 21st century politics.

David Cameron recently wrote an article in the Guardian, asking for greater devolvement of power. This isn’t exactly a new theme, and the article is somewhat ironic given it was Thatcher more than anyone else that smashed local Government control in the UK.  Look past thishowever and you will see a key piece of Cameron’s plan is for 12 new mayoral systems to be established across the UK.  The rise of mayoral politics is undoubtedly a symbol of our growing urbanisation, with over 50% of the world’s population now living in urban areas, the traditional local government structures, of geographical region will need serious reform to cope with the growing power of cities.

There are reasons to think this is a positive development; the recent intensity around London’s election, which saw Conservative Boris Johnson oust incumbent Ken Livingstone was a testament to the shifting identities in the UK and around the world , and a subsequent need for new democratic structures to represent and engage people.

Furthermore, cities are fundamentally different from other traditional units, continuous, dense economic hubs with high stress on resources and infrastructure,  usually multicultural and often far more integrated into the global economy,change is a permanent state in the city and as such the mayoral system with greater executive power is in my opinion far more appropriate.

These two pieces of legislation, remarkable in their breadth, vision and justified belief in the importance of cities for global issues is a strongly positive symbol of the globalized society to find new routes to enact the urgent change we need to tackle Climate Change, and hopefully arrest the lethargy in national goverment in addressing urgent issues.