Crafting local climate action plans: An action prioritisation framework using multi-criteria decision analysis

The COP21 target to keep global warming to well below 2 (or 1.5) degrees Celsius cannot be met without massive transformation in cities. A major challenge on the road to nearly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions-neutral cities is the successful development of a climate action plan (CAP) by the local authority, sometimes within the framework of its participation to different initiatives (e.g. the Global Covenant of Mayors). While the identification of the best actions for reaching their long-term GHG emission reduction target constitutes a common decision-making problem for local authorities, it is also an intricate one: conflicting and incommensurable aspects such as environmental, economic, social and technical issues, as well as conflicting stakeholder interests should be dealt with simultaneously when actions have to be programmed. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods are well-known to cope with these complexities and have already been used for decades in several fields. However, they have not been systematically used within the context of local CAPs. The methodologies which are normally implemented to support the prioritisation of actions wholly or to a great extent rely on economic analyses and do not capture the potential co-impacts. In this context, this paper proposes a general participatory framework for guiding collaborative prioritisation of actions as a methodology to help local authorities with the development of more sustainable CAPs, while using MCDA. Finally, advantages, limitations and further steps in research regarding the proposed framework are discussed.