Coordinating climate change adaptation across levels of government: the gap between theory and practice of integrated adaptation strategy processes

Abstract

Policymakers at different government levels develop integrated adaptation strategy processes (ASPs), which are supposed to prepare a particular region, country or municipality for the impacts of climate change. The adaptation literature suggests that coordination of these efforts promises comprehensive climate change adaptation, because it allows making use of synergies and avoiding maladaptation. Nonetheless, we lack evidence about the coordination of multiple levels and its potential to actually facilitate climate change adaptation. Based on an examination of 14 integrated ASPs, the author asks how they interact with each other, if they reconcile the priorities of other levels, and if they are an adequate tool for coordinating climate change adaptation. The study reveals a considerable gap between theory and practice. It demonstrates that the call for coordination is not reflected in current adaptation policy and questions whether (more) coordination is what we need to be better prepared for the impacts of climate change.

Keywords:

• climate change adaptation
• levels of government
• integrated strategies
• policy coordination
• policy integration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1 In order to obtain a broader picture of well-established adaptation processes, we chose this relatively broad selection criterion. As a result, our sample includes classical federal states (Australia, Canada) as well as England (which has no stand-alone legislature, but was required under the UK’s Climate Change Act 2008 to develop an own national adaptation program; the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2013) and states in which the provincial or regional level do not play a major role. In a study with a smaller sample size, it would be interesting to examine in more depth how these differences affect coordination activities, as well as the implementation of adaptation strategies.

2 From now on these two processes will be collectively referred to as ‘international’.

3 For details on the case studies see Table 1.

4 I selected the water sector because it is mentioned as the target sector in policy documents for all cases. I did not talk to sector representatives at the international level because the strategy processes of the Baltic Sea Region and the EU do not directly target sector representatives at their own level.

5 At the request of the interviewees, the interview guide was converted into a written questionnaire. In addition, I had the chance to ask follow-up questions via e-mail.

6 German quotes were translated into English by the author.

7 Accordingly, these references refer to new policy documents, as well secondary material, but do not include new interview material.

8 In order to protect the anonymity of the IPs, direct quotes are not associated with particular interview codes.

9 See: http://www.baltcica.org/; accessed September 11, 2016.

10 See: http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/environment/impacts-adaptation/adaptation-platform/10027; accessed at August 14, 2018.

11 See: https://www.government.nl/topics/delta-programme; accessed at August 14, 2018.

12 Due to the research focus on vertical coordination/integration, this issue cannot be examined any further here. For details on the integration of policies across levels and sectors at the same time, also known as diagonal integration see: Steurer 2010.

13 http://baltadapt.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94:action-plan&catid=42:action-plan&Itemid=225; accessed on August 14, 2018.

14 https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/adaptation/what_en; accessed at 8/14/2018.

15 Currently, the Implementation Programme NAS 2018-2019 (2017) can only be accessed in Dutch. See: https://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/countries-regions/countries/netherlands; accessed on August 14 2018.

16 https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/news/2018/04/canadian-centre-for-climate-services.html; accessed on August 16, 2018.

17 https://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/countries-regions/countries/denmark or http://en.klimatilpasning.dk/; both accessed on August 14, 2018.

18 https://vancouver.ca/green-vancouver/climate-change-adaptation-strategy.aspx

19 For Copenhagen see: https://international.kk.dk/artikel/climate-adaptation. For Helsinki see: https://www.hsy.fi/en/experts/climatechange/adaptation/Pages/-Adaptation-strategy.aspx. For London, which sets out a list of adaptation policies and proposals in the London Environment Strategy (published in May 2018), see: https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/environment/climate-change-weather-and-water/climate-change-and-weather; all accessed on August 16, 2018.

20 The Helsinki Metropolitan Area entails the cities of Espoo, Kauniainen, Helsinki and Vantaa. Nonetheless, we understand the strategy process as a local case, because it is an association of local authorities which exercises municipal rights.

21 See: https://www.balticsea-region-strategy.eu/; accessed on August 6, 2018.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund under the Austrian Climate Research Programme (ACRP) – 8th Call [grant number: KR15AC8K12542].