WWF: A Transversal Bridging Organization. Exploring the Role of WWF in the Urban Climate Governance Arena.

Sammanfattning: In the last years, a lack of trust in multi-lateral agreements has been rising, in part because of the absence of a global legally binding environmental regime, since the end of the Kyoto Protocol. The urban climate governance arena has been emerging as a much more promising scenario for climate action. Municipalities have been setting an ambitious climate agenda, planning for climate mitigation and adaptation at the local level in order to build resilient communities. This has been possible also thanks to the collaboration of municipal bodies with new, emerging non-state actors, such as bridging organizations. The role of these stakeholders has still not been defined, mapped, or institutionalized. This thesis aims to examine the role Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) is playing in the urban climate governance arena, finally providing recommendations to three audiences: namely WWF, municipalities and researchers. After producing a comprehensive literature review matrix, twenty-four interviews were carried out with relevant stakeholders, guided by pre-selected key themes derived from the literature streams. The qualitative data obtained from these semi-structured interviews were synthesized through an integrated analytical framework, built on both stakeholder mapping and middle-out theory. The key findings of this thesis have led both to a practical and theoretical contribution, by identifying WWF as a bridging organization and by contributing to an in-depth analysis of this new emerging stakeholder role.