Public Sector Capacity for Climate Action in Asia: What Does City Governance Need?

​City and provincial governments across Asia operationalize national climate ambitions into actionable plans. What does city governance need to deliver on them? This session frames that question around institutional architecture: the human, knowledge, tools, relational, and financial layers that convert a policy commitment into delivery. Each layer draws on a mix of actors, government bodies, intergovernmental agencies, CSOs, and private partners, whose roles shift based on the layer's requirements. These layers hold when sustained and built into government practice, allowing them to outlast any single office or funding cycle. Mapping these variations across geographies surfaces the combinations that deliver results and the gaps that recur.

​The format of the event is a participative roundtable. Over 90 minutes, participants will hear short provocations from participating organisations, then discuss key questions in small breakout groups, and come together to share insights and connect.

​The session is organised by Monsoon Academy, the capacity-building arm of Transitions Research, in collaboration with C40 and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), drawing on their work with climate cells and city networks across South and Southeast Asia to ground this mapping in practice and bring city and provincial governance closer to the mechanisms that carry policy intent through to delivery