Constructing Urban Climate Governance: Discourse, Power, and Priorities in the C40 Network - Case Study of the C-40 Network

This thesis examines how C40 shapes urban climate governance, and the values that guide it. Through a critical discourse analysis of six annual reports (2017–2023), the study demonstrates how C40 presents cities as global climate leaders. There is an emphasis on technocratic and market-based solutions, focusing on innovation, measurability and profitability. Philanthropic organisations such as Bloomberg Philanthropies play a leading role in this, providing funding and board participation. While C40 is committed to social justice and inclusion, these themes are frequently embedded within a dominant logic of efficiency and scalability. The study concludes that C40's discourse primarily perpetuates existing growth paradigms, raising questions about the feasibility of achieving genuinely transformative and structurally equitable climate change within this policy framework.