["Environmental Policy and Governance, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nWhy do formally similar multi‐level governance arrangements produce different governance outcomes in urban climate and transport policy? This article examines variation in governance performance across three metropolitan regions in Norway operating under the national Urban Growth Agreement (UGA) framework and pursuing the shared objective of zero growth in private car traffic. Drawing on participatory observation of steering group meetings, three rounds of elite interviews, and document analysis, the study analyzes how polycentric governance operates in practice. Building on the Institutional Analysis and Development framework and Carlisle and Gruby's concept of enabling conditions, it argues that variation in governance performance is explained less by whether enabling conditions are present than by how they are configured across decision arenas. The findings identify three governance configurations: one characterized by structured bargaining and distributive tensions, one by stable coordination supported by technical expertise and consensus‐oriented procedures, and one by consensus‐constrained adaptation shaped by territorial balancing. The findings show that institutional configurations of enabling conditions shape adaptive capacity, institutional fit, and redundancy in polycentric urban climate governance systems.\n"]