OBJECTIVE /// Understand the mobilisation of discourses of subnational action in global environmental politics, attending to how they shape the conditions of possibility for local action in ordinary cities.

WP1 had three main findings.

First, WP1 demonstrated how ideas about action in place-based locations change over time, depending on the demands of the international political context. There has been a shift in the last decade from a wave of urban optimism focused on encouraging cities to take climate action to a wave of urban pragmatism that calls for concrete evidence of the impact of urban action on emission reductions and increases in resilience (Output 1.1). This shift has led to the increasing homogenisation of discourses of urban action for climate change, which tends to close pathways for diverse actors to activate change and transformations (Output 1.6).

Second, WP2 demonstrated the weight of discourses of urgency in the landscape of climate change governance. WP1 focused on local governments (Output 1.5) and the activation of a language of emergency with positive and negative consequences (Output 1.2). In addition, a special issue on 'the New Politics of Climate Change' (Outputs 1.3 and 1.4) put the results of WP1 in dialogue with complex analyses of the governance landscape, including civil society action and activism, demonstrating that many potential alliances remain unexplored.

Third, WP1 examined the constitution of imaginaries, how they were consolidated in texts, like policy documents, and how professionals mobilised them in interviews. The work showed that while specific ideas consolidated in hegemonic discourses, professionals could find multiple areas of innovation (Outputs 1.6 and 1.7).