Examining legal and regulatory barriers to climate change adaptation in the coastal zone of the United States

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of key legal and regulatory instruments in the United States that impact climate adaptation planning. The analysis is framed within a social-institutional context, meaning the legal-regulatory environment is viewed from the perspective of the practices and norms that are created through existing laws and policies. Those norms and practices are then compared to current best practices for coastal climate adaptation to determine if and where divergence between recommended best practices and existing policy structures occurs. The results of this analysis suggest key policy instruments cumulatively act as barriers to adopting climate change assessment recommendations in coastal regions. The main causes for this disconnect between information and action seem to be historical path dependence, clear counter-incentives favoring coastal development, and multiple narratives of climate change, all of which diminish a unified public demand for coastal adaptation. Enumerated lessons presented from this analysis can be used as conceptual starting points when thinking about translating assessments of climate change into public action. In particular, the social-institutional framework provides an analytical construct for gaining insight into how existing legal and regulatory instruments influence adoption of proposed adaptation strategies, including highlighting when divergence between existing and proposed policies occurs.

Keywords:

• climate change
• adaptation
• climate policy
• development
• disaster risk management

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Fundamental to sound policy development is the review of existing policies to determine how they might impact new policy directions. This paper examines two longstanding national policies in the US under a social-institutional analysis framework to examine how those policies will impact coastal climate change adaptation. The results suggest that these policies aid in the existing discounting of coastal hazard risk currently being observed in US coastlines. People in the US are moving to the coastlines in greater numbers, leading to higher coastal population densities. This, in-turn, is leading to increased coastal development in areas at heightened risk of coastal flooding. The findings in this analysis reinforce the importance of existing policies, particularly how those policies might influence new policy directions. A clear implication is that we must consider how existing policies, intended or otherwise, will influence the development of coastal climate change adaption policies.

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

The author received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Chad J. McGuire

Chad McGuire is an associate professor of environmental policy and, currently, chair of the Department of Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. His research generally focuses at the intersection of law, science, and policy. Current work includes understanding how existing law and policy frameworks impact climate change adaptation. He has written and published extensively on coastal climate change adaptation, primarily in the US. This work helps to further develop an understanding of how existing policy frameworks influence new policy development.