scholarly journals Why popular support tools on climate change adaptation have difficulties in reaching local policy-makers: Qualitative insights from the UK and Germany

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Clar ◽  
Reinhard Steurer
Climate ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Jonatan A. Lassa

Institutions matter because they are instrumental in systematically adapting to global climate change, reducing disaster risks, and building resilience. Without institutionalised action, adapting to climatic change remains ad-hoc. Using exploratory research design and longitudinal observations, this research investigates how urban stakeholders and policy entrepreneurs negotiate institutional architecture and pathways for sustaining climate change adaptation and resilience implementation. This paper introduces hybrid institutionalism as a framework to understand how city administrators, local policy makers, and policy advocates navigate complex institutional landscapes that are characterised by volatility and uncertainties. Grounded in the experience from a recent experiment in Indonesia, this research suggests that institutionalisation of adaptation and resilience agenda involves different forms of institutionalisation and institutionalism through time. Future continuity of adaptation to climate change action depends on the dynamic nature of the institutionalism that leads to uncertainty in mainstreaming risk reduction. However, this research found that pathway-dependency theory emerges as a better predictor for institutionalising climate change adaptation and resilience in Indonesia.


2020 ◽  
pp. 107808742093844
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Haupt

Study visits are an underresearched phenomenon, particularly in the field of climate change adaptation. Drawing on interviews with key local stakeholders, this article investigates study visits organized by European municipal climate networks. The results of this exploratory research show that study visits about adaptation policies can (1) particularly stimulate conceptual learning, (2) increase the credibility of policies within municipal administrations, (3) be used as strategic instruments by mentor cities, (4) be more successful if the peer-cities are not too different (in terms of size, institutional context), and (5) under certain conditions, lead to policy adoption in a learning city. Future research needs to critically discuss the mass suitability of learning from frontrunner cities. Furthermore, a call is raised for more research and practical action on how to initiate and improve learning exchanges beyond the strict division between mentors and learners. Instead, the focus needs to be on mutual learning exchanges.


Geosciences ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Sesana ◽  
Alexandre Gagnon ◽  
Chiara Bertolin ◽  
John Hughes

Changes in rainfall patterns, humidity, and temperature, as well as greater exposure to severe weather events, has led to the need for adapting cultural heritage to climate change. However, there is limited research accomplished to date on the process of adaptation of cultural heritage to climate change. This paper examines the perceptions of experts involved in the management and preservation of cultural heritage on adaptation to climate change risks. For this purpose, semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts from the UK, Italy, and Norway as well as a participatory workshop with stakeholders. The results indicate that the majority of interviewees believe that adaptation of cultural heritage to climate change is possible. Opportunities for, barriers to, and requirements for adapting cultural heritage to climate change, as perceived by the interviewees, provided a better understanding of what needs to be provided and prioritized for adaptation to take place and in its strategic planning. Knowledge of management methodologies incorporating climate change impacts by the interviewees together with best practice examples in adapting cultural heritage to climate change are also reported. Finally, the interviewees identified the determinant factors for the implementation of climate change adaptation. This paper highlights the need for more research on this topic and the identification and dissemination of practical solutions and tools for the incorporation of climate change adaptation in the preservation and management of cultural heritage.


Author(s):  
Stewart Barr ◽  
Gareth Shaw

Behavioural change has become regarded as a key tool for policy makers to promote behavioural change that can reduce carbon emissions from personal travel. Yet academic research has suggested that promoting low carbon travel behaviours, in particular those associated with leisure and tourism practices, is particularly challenging because of the highly valued and conspicuous nature of the consumption involved. Accordingly, traditional top-down approaches to developing behavioural change campaigns have largely been ineffectual in this field and this chapter explores innovative ways to understand and develop behavioural change campaigns that are driven from the bottom upwards. In doing so, we draw on emergent literature from management studies and social marketing to explore how ideas of service dominant logic can be used to engage consumers in developing each stage of a behavioural change campaign. Using data and insights from research conducted in the south-east of the UK, we outline and evaluate the process for co-producing knowledge about low carbon travel and climate change. We illustrate how behavioural change campaign creation can be an engaging, lively and productive process of knowledge and experience sharing. The chapter ends by considering the role that co-production and co-creation can have in developing strategies for low carbon mobility and, more broadly, the ways in which publics understand and react to anthropogenic climate change.


Climate Law ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yee Huang ◽  
Robert L. Glicksman ◽  
Catherine O’Neill ◽  
William L. Andreen ◽  
Victor Flatt ◽  
...  

Regardless of the efforts governments may take to mitigate the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and other human activities on climate change, the need for society to adapt to climate change is unavoidable. Adapting to the myriad impacts of climate change will require actions at all levels of government. This article focuses on the anticipated impacts of climate change on the Puget Sound region in the northwestern United States as an example of the range of problems climate change will present and of the solutions available to governments and others interested in avoiding or minimizing the adverse impacts of climate change. As a guide for policy-makers, the article offers general principles for formulating climate change adaptation policies, suggestions for changes in decision-making processes that make them more suitable for addressing the unpredictable impacts of climate change, and strategies for adapting to three specific categories of climate change effects: impacts on the hydrologic cycle, sea-level rise, and altered meteorological conditions. The strategies and recommendations analysed in the article can provide a model for climate change adaptation policies, both in the Puget Sound region and more broadly, that are both environmentally protective and socially equitable.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Pedro Nunes ◽  
Luís Filipe Dias ◽  
Bruno A. Aparício ◽  
Inês Morais ◽  
Ana Lúcia Fonseca ◽  
...  

<p>Mediterranean agricultural systems often rely on irrigation, which can cause conflicts with domestic water demand due to limited water resources. Climate change could enhance these conflicts by bringing a drier climate, lowering water availability, while increasing irrigation demands, therefore creating a need for timely adaptation actions. However, the creation of adaptation plans requires the integration of local policy-makers and stakeholders, both to ensure that the plans are adjusted to local physical and social conditions, and to secure investment in the implementation phase. As many are not technical experts in water resources, this integration requires innovative methodologies to ensure that knowledge gained from advanced hydrological methods can be effectively transmitted for use.</p><p>These issues were addressed in the climate change adaptation plan for water resources in the Algarve region (southern Portugal), which was co-created between hydrologists and local stakeholders and policy-makers under project CLIMAAA, by using the Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways (DAAP) approach to synthetize the results from hydrological modelling of future scenarios.</p><p>Future scenarios were simulated from the present until 2100 using a hydrological model, with multiple realizations of climate scenarios RCP4.5and RCP8.5. The results show an increase in water stress conditions, mainly in the RCP8.5 scenario. Future scenarios and potential adaptation measures were discussed with the local policy-makers (regional and municipal water managers) and water users (water utilities, farmer associations). An agreed-upon set of measures was then simulated with the model to assess their effectiveness for adaptation. These results were used to design a DAAP specifically for the water sector in the Algarve.</p><p>Policy-makers were then presented with the DAPP, combined with a cost assessment, and selected the most suitable and politically reliable adaptation pathway until 2100. They did not consider socially desirable to decrease irrigation use, and showed a strong preference for measures such as promoting efficient water use and water retention landscapes, which are distributed and incremental, to measures such as wastewater recycling which require a large investment. However, they did consider desalination as a last resort despite the high investment, to be applied in case other measures fail to maintain water stress below an acceptable threshold. In the end, an adaptation plan for water resources was co-created between policy-makers and researchers which strongly reflected local desires and preferences, while ensuring that its effectiveness was assessed with the best available tools; this plan is now in in the review and implementation stage.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chukwuma Otum Ume ◽  
Ogochukwu Onah ◽  
Kehinde Paul Adeosun ◽  
Onyekwe Chris Nnamdi ◽  
Nice Nneoma Ihedioha ◽  
...  

AbstractThis study set out to empirically determine the current state of individual and household adaptation to climate change in the United Kingdom and how policy makers can improve on it. The study utilized both qualitative and quantitative approaches (mixed method). For the quantitative aspect of the study, a quota-sampling technique was employed in the selection of 650 respondents for the study using a well-structured questionnaire. The quota representation was based on age and gender. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and binary logit regression. In addition, qualitative content/topic analysis of an in-depth interview of the respondents was employed in further analyzing why and how policy makers can improve climate change adaptation. Findings from the study indicate the dire need for continued government support in household and individual adaptation in Leeds, and this support should also be encouraged in other cities where government intervention is low. Interventions in the form of subsidies, direct regulations, and public awareness are needed. The implementation of these measures is expected to generate a wide range of additional benefits to most vulnerable groups who should be central to the rapidly expanding climate change research and policy agenda in the United Kingdom.


2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 401-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Aldum ◽  
J. Duggie ◽  
B. J. Robson

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