The governance of climate change adaptation: are networks to blame for the implementation deficit?

ABSTRACT

Although governance is often cited as a challenge for implementing climate change adaptation policies, existing scholarship has not adequately explored the relationship between modes of adaptation governance and the implementation of adaptation objectives. This paper analyzes adaptation governance in two Canadian provinces, with a focus on three key elements: actor roles, actor relations, and policy instruments. Drawing on a comprehensive document analysis and 81 interviews, we argue that network governance has been fruitful in coordinating policy ideas and motivating actors across sectors and scales, but has also served as a barrier to effective implementation of adaptation policies. We conclude that incorporating features of other governance modes, including more direct steering from the state, is required to resolve this implementation deficit.

KEYWORDS:

• Adaptation
• climate change
• governance
• implementation
• networks

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers and editor for their helpful comments, which improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Danny Bednar, PhD is an instructor in the Department of Geography at Western University. His research areas include climate change adaptation, governance, the critical geopolitics of outer space, satellite Earth observation, and the history of space exploration.

Daniel Henstra is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo. His research centres on public administration and public policy, with a specific focus on emergency management and climate change adaptation.

Gordon McBean is Professor Emeritus at Western University and Director of Policy at Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction and was previously an Assistant Deputy Minister in Environment Canada. His research focuses on climate and disaster risk management policy and science issues.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support for this study from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant - 435-2013-1692 with the title - Integrated Strategies for Risk Reduction Research awarded to Professor G. McBean.