Cities must play a key role in effective climate policy, a role that can be specified in two very different ways. They can have decentralised autonomy regarding many subjects, including climate emissions (decentralisation), or they have to implement centrally defined tasks, including centrally decided climate policies (deconcentration). Decentralisation relates to local autonomy while deconcentration refers to regional branches of central government. Both elements are present in city government, often in mixed forms, with some autonomy in the implementation of centrally defined tasks. Climate policy under the Paris Agreement (2015) sets a goal of a maximum of 2°C global temperature rise, or preferably only 1.5°C. This will require emission reductions of well over 90 per cent by 2050, especially in developed countries. Such reductions will have a massive impact on virtually all activities in society, including those at city level. If climate policy forces cities to implement centrally decided policies, they will move towards a dependent, deconcentrated role, focusing on technical issues. Current climate policy tends towards such central planning: central emission reduction targets are translated into sectoral tasks and subsequently into more technology-specific implementation. An example is the EU plans for refurbishing the housing stock to achieve low emission, as laid down in the Energy Efficiency Directive, with around 3 per cent of the stock to be refurbished each year (European Union).1 National governments are to enact this task in national emission reduction plans, and then translate these into tasks for more local governments and organisations. The logic of effective administration also requires performance reporting, as a key ingredient of control. At the local level, choices are predefined and limited to details. In this situation, deconcentration of national tasks becomes dominant over decentralisation, and city autonomy, as a key factor for a good life in pleasant cities, is thereby substantially reduced, for apparently sound global climate policy reasons.