Understanding the framings of climate change adaptation across multiple scales of governance in Europe

Abstract

Climate change adaptation strategies are emerging across Europe as societies attempt to adapt to the challenges of a changing environment. Social constructivist analyses of environmental policy – especially those emphasising ‘framing’ – can be very useful in teasing out the framings of policy problems such as adaptation. They can also shed light on the underlying assumptions that steer and guide public and environmental policy. Using the theoretical concept of framing to analyse adaptation policies across different scales of governance in four European countries – Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom and Italy – and drawing on policy documents from those countries, as well as semi-structured interviews with practitioners, the development of adaptation policy processes and especially how adaptation has been defined within these processes are examined. Four major framings of adaptation are identified: ‘planning’, ‘economic risk’, ‘vulnerability’ and ‘existing measures’. These frames affect how adaptation is conceptualised, policy problems defined and, ultimately how policy develops.

Keywords:

• framing
• climate change
• adaptation
• Europe
• multi-scale
• governance

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) through the project ‘Organising Adaptation to Climate Change in Europe’ (EUR-Adapt), led by Carina Keskitalo. An earlier version was presented at the 7th International Science Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, Bonn, Germany, 26–30 April 2009. The authors thank those who participated in the interviews and also two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the paper.

Notes

1. A list of interviewed organisations, places and dates of interviews is provided in the Appendix.

2. All four countries have established some form of institutional mechanisms for financial and technical support for adaptation in developing countries (cf. Carter 2007, MATTM 2007, Commission on Climate Change and Development 2009, DfID 2009).

3. Vulnerability here relates to vulnerability of a system or a society rather than vulnerability of a specific group of people in relation to others (Adger 2006), and more specifically refers to the degree to which a system is susceptible to and unable to cope with effects of climate change, which in turn relates to the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity of the system (Smit et al. 2000).