Introduction: Climate Governance Across the Globe: Pioneers, Leaders and Followers

Climate change requires leadership. Environmental leaders and pioneers have long been identified as pivotal actors for solving, or at least mitigating, environmental problems at both the domestic and international governance levels. Indeed, the 2015 Paris Agreement, which is based on a bottom-up approach involving all states, has arguably increased the importance of climate leaders and pioneers, as well as followers. In this Introduction, we explain the core analytical concepts used throughout this volume. We differentiate between leaders, who usually intend to attract followers, and pioneers, for whom this is not the case. The Introduction distinguishes between four types of leadership, namely structural, entrepreneurial, cognitive and exemplary, which we then employ throughout the book. Moreover, multilevel and polycentric climate governance, which are also key concepts in our volume, provide the contexts in which such leadership, pioneership and followership occurs. The final section of the Introduction, explains the structure of our edited volume, which analyses sixteen countries plus the European Union.