※ The attached PDF is provided in Korean.

The municipal leadership transition in Paris in March 2026 demonstrates that the decade-long climate transition has achieved deep institutional maturity, shifting from a period of contentious experimentation to a phase of consolidation and adjustment. Rather than treating climate action as an optional policy path, the public mandate has solidified ecological transition as a baseline for urban governance. In this issue brief, we assess how the municipal administration moved from early visionary declarations to structural spatial reallocation. Our analysis finds that the systematic reallocation of vehicular space, the expansion of the cycling network to 1,400 kilometres, and the expansion of social housing to represent 23.1% of the total housing stock by 2024 have successfully embedded the "15-minute city" model into daily urban life.

These physical interventions have generated clear environmental outcomes, including a substantial decrease in nitrogen dioxide exposure and surface temperature reductions of up to 10°C on pedestrianised school streets. However, reallocating public space has also triggered social debates regarding transit access and transitional costs. To mitigate the pressures of green gentrification, recent municipal focus has shifted towards integrating climate actions with social policies, particularly housing affordability and community-led climate adaptation programmes through the co-design of schoolyards. The findings point to a key lesson for urban governance: the long-term viability of decarbonisation depends on how equitably the benefits and burdens are shared. This insight offers a valuable framework for local policy in South Korea, demonstrating that integrating climate measures with welfare and transport equity is essential to securing a lasting democratic mandate for the local ecological transition.

Author
Eunok PARK | Local Transformation Team | eunokpark@igt.or.kr