Challenges of effective governance for sustainable development at subnational government levels

December 2022, Paper: "The UN’s Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as the principles of effectiveness, accountability and inclusiveness they are built upon, have been rather challenging for national and even more so for subnational governments. The situation has usually been exacerbated by the inflexibility, complexity or political determents of many multi-level governance arrangements, which tend to limit action at lower levels. Unsurprisingly, there has been limited progress. And yet subnational governments are on the front line of sustainability efforts, undertaking a wide range of initiatives, addressing such matters as responses to climate change (storm surge barriers, heat mitigation, water conservation, expanding tree canopies, public transit, bike and electric vehicle policies, energy saving efforts and building codes). They are experimenting with a variety of financing tools to pay for these efforts, including issuing green bonds, public-private partnerships, state matching funds, as well as specific incentives, own-source taxes, fees, borrowing and regulations. In many cases these efforts require new levels of collaboration with other actors, such as community foundations and other civil society groups, voter approval and political leadership." Read Via Public Sector Economics