Transnational actors are critical for financing programs and generating awareness around climate change adaptation in cities. However, it is unclear whether transnational support actually enables more authority over adaptation actions and whether outcomes address wide-ranging development needs. In this article, I compare experiences from three cities in IndiaSurat, Indore, and Bhubaneswarand link local political agency over adaptation with their supporting transnational funders. I find that adaptation governance involves powers of agency over directing bureaucratic practices, public finance, spatial strategies, and institutional culture. A city's ability to exert these powers then yields different patterns of adaptation. However, political agency is circumscribed by a combination of historical political economic constraints and emerging transnational resources that promote specific forms of political meaning and procedures. The presence of external support therefore paradoxically constrains the governance autonomy of cities. This opens up new opportunities for development dependencythat is, ones that mirror neoliberal critiques of foreign aidwithin the global marketplace for climate finance.
Chu, EK
Transnational Support for Urban Climate Adaptation: Emerging Forms of Agency and Dependency
Global Environmental Politics