It’s all in the details: comparing and explaining variation in the ‘policy specificity’ of sub-city climate activities

Comparative analyses of policy datasets enable explanatory variables to be found, but not all policy activities are extensive enough to be assessed through the established ‘policy intensity’ approach. We introduce ‘policy specificity’ – a composite index for examining the specificity of an intended policy measure – to analyse 2,508 pledged climate activities of 29 sub-city ‘borough’ councils in London, UK. Using this novel index, we undertake a mixed methods approach to explain variation between boroughs, using regression analyses and data from 17 interviews with relevant policymakers. We find that higher median personal incomes, larger council budget cuts, and location within the ‘Outer’ boroughs of London are statistically significant in explaining the creation of more specific policies, while we identified five key explanatory themes for this variation from our interview data. Our new policy specificity index can be used in future comparative policy studies of any governance level in any country, and is applicable to other policy areas.