Climate and Energy Governance Perspectives from a Municipal Point of View in Hungary

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Municipal climate policy is a highly relevant issue, as all national policies eventually translate into local implementation. Therefore, local awareness is of crucial importance. The range of municipal climate policies needs to be studies more thoroughly; therefore, I congratulate the authors on their research approach. Having said this, I would recommend a improving the paper in methodology and policy relevance. Here are some comments:

In the introduction, delete the first phrase and go directly to the point of interest.

Please explain the choice of the study area and its representativity for the totality of the Hungarian territory.

Figure 2 does not contribute to the understanding of the text.

The correlation between poverty and climate vulnerability is obvious. However, some illustrative examples from your survey area would be helpful. 

"Only bigger settlements implemented or plan to realize projects in green transportation, for example in the form of tram-line development or the installation of e-car chargers." (line 336). Obviously, villages are unable to realize transport policies, unless they join forces with neighboring communities. What are the obstacles here?

I miss a Conclusions / Recommendations section. Your findings need to be presented in a policy-relevant form. For example, the phrase "Hungarian local municipalities are unable to develop their own climate and energy policies independent from the national government" is extremely relevant, and it must not hide in the "Discussion" section.

Standard English needs to be improved. Please seek the assistance of a native speaker, in order to ensure readability, and, in some cases, the reader's understanding of your statements. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript (MS) explores the perceptions of leaders from 22 selected settlements in Hungary on climate change mitigation, adaptation and the awareness as well as energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. Much focus has been placed on the analysis of the role of state, county, municipality, town and village in the hierarchical system. Compare to other previous research on climate change and energy transition governance, this MS enhances our understanding from the perspective of a lagging -behind municipal point of view. Before acceptance for publication, I suggest the authors to improve the MS from following aspects:

1. A widely seen problem in the current version is the ill structure. The information provided is isolated and hampers the readers from shaping a whole picture. For example, the introduction part covers a wide spectrum of research background, literature review, adopted conceptual framework of this paper,  research aim, questionnaire content. Actually some information should move to the 2nd section. On the contrary, the methodology in the second section is poorly described. In section 3.2, the structure, role and cooperation are discussed. But no headings are listed. The same problem appears in the discussion part.

2. More details are needed in research methodology, the selection of 29 settlements, their representation in the governance analysis.

3. It is advisable to provide a reference for the readers to the subordinate relationships between state, counties, municipalities and towns. Therefore, the readers can compare this system with the RES and climate governance system presented in Fig. 10.

4. The correspondence between relevant description and Fig.2. In line 137, institutional issues are mentioned in the text but not included in Fig. 2.

5. In line 149, what do the steps refer to? the three types mentioned above?

6. It is not convincing to conclude the "aging population" (in line 263) from the above discription "more young inhabitants, but the elderly..." (in line 257-258)  

7. The logic in line 264-265 is problematic. I believe a socio-economic performance below the national average can also imply an enhanced support from the central government, not necessarily to judge local resources exploitation is more relevant.

8. What are SEAP, SECAP appeared in line 310?

9. Authors have mentioned "distorted" form/ concepts at the beginning (in line 428) and at the end (in line 428). However, there is no mentioning at all in the results part.

10. I suggest to add a modifier " lagging-behind" in front of "municipal" in the title to more accurately define the research scope of the paper.

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

This is an interesting subject, nevertheless the paper is not a scientific paper. I not sure if the work carried out is scientific work, but since the paper is very confusing, maybe it is just the paper that is not suitable. It is not clear what work was carried out, the methods used or the results achieved.

The use of pronouns (like “we” and “our”) should be avoided.

The introduction is very confusing, it seams a sequence of paragraphs with little connection between each other. The litereature review is very poor and the previous research carried out on this issue is not critically analysed.

Line 15 - the term exhaust should be emissions

Line 24 - it is not clear what the authors mean by the local leaders being environmentalists…

Line 72 - The acronym RES should be explained the first time it appears in the text.

Line 79 - Is not clear the need to cite George W. Bush…

Line 132 - “Through their system, municipal involvement in climate governance (Cg) can be divided into two parts.” - I think these two parts are not explained, or at least I did not understand them…

Line 134 - The authors mention four factors, but then refer more than four.

Line 143 - Figure 2 should not be a figure, but an equation… In addition, this equation is not properly explained, what does fi stand for? There is a parenthesis that does not close.

Line 156 - What third way?

Line 173 - Most of these cannot be considered research questions.

Line 198 - A short description of the case study areas should not be in the Material and methods chapter.

The graphics presented must have a caption in each of the axis, with the name of the variable and the unit.

Line 282 - Figure 7 is not suitable for a research paper. The results of the interviews should be presented with quantitative graphics. The same for Figure 9.

Author Response

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Reviewer 4 Report

I have the following comments:

The introduction is too long. The authors should divide the introduction and add a litertaurereview section intead.

The article need a conclusion section which summarisies the paper.

Author Response

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Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Thanks for the authors’ hard work on the improvement of the paper with a special focus on its structure. Generally, the direction of the improvement is correct, but the handling in the new version appears not neat enough. I have the following recommendations:

1. It is not appropriate to put the research aims and key research questions in the new introduction part, as they should be set after analyzing the research gaps in existing research.

2. I suggest including the specific research questions in section 3.1 and briefly illustrating the linkages between the design of questionnaires and the research objectives.

3. Please pay attention to the small spelling errors, such as:

In line 194, …guide is enclosed in …

In line 214, … area represents the main …

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

The revision carried out by the authors slightly improved the paper, but there are still some issues to address.

It is crucial that the authors carry out a critical literature review.

If the authors agree that the research questions are not research questions, I don’t know why they still name them that. I suggest not to name research questions the ones that are just simple technical questions.

Figure 6 - the caption of the yy axis is not readable.

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