Drivers for local-level climate adaptation

In addition to the major perceived barriers, we also gained insight into sev- eral more positive factors for promoting local climate change adaptation. In a manner similar to earlier studies of Local Agenda 21 in Europe (Lafferty & Coenen, 2001), the project indicates that local ‘firebrands’ are of signifi- cant importance in a positive direction. The presence of a Green alderman in one case (and, more generally, specifically ‘environmentally oriented’ adminis- trators), was strongly reported as crucial to the promotion of climate-related initiatives. The factor usually reflected and enhanced positive institutional support for addressing the climate change issue.

Similarly, we also found that the more ‘willing’ and positively disposed cases were also active in all sorts of network. This varied from EU projects to urban networks and inter-municipal cooperation. Interviewees actively con- firmed that these networks played a key role, as they enabled the local actors to exchange knowledge and best practices, and to share the costs of research and trial projects. Within such stimulating networks, local actors are more motivated to explore climate adaptation efforts that would otherwise be too ambitious (resource-demanding) for a single municipality.

The drivers revealed show similarities to key implementation factors identi- fied by Bulkeley and Betsill (2003) in their analyses of local climate mitigation efforts:

1. a committed individual in a local-level government that

2. manifests a solid climate-protection policy (preventing GHG emissions),

3. has funding available,

4. has power over mitigation-related domains and

5. perhaps most crucially, has the political will to act.

By adjusting Factors 2 and 4 from mitigation to adaptation, this list provides a solid baseline for future adaptation initiatives. On the basis of our study, however, we would also add local contextual factors such as:

6. an awareness of the specifics of local climate change impacts (see Table 2.5),

Chapter 2 Adaptation to climate change flooding in Dutch municipalities

8. attempts to factor risk assessment into long-term policies,

9. experience with previous extreme-weather events and

10. the size of the municipality population.

Despite the complex nature of the problem, interviewees in the mitigation front-runner cases express their belief that the problem of climate change adaptation will gradually ‘settle’ into a more commonly accepted issue. They frequently pointed out that mitigation was also a tough issue, but that it had now been commonly accepted. There is no longer (at least not in our case studies) a perceived need to convince and motivate colleagues within the local administration. Most citizens are seen as being aware of energy conservation, the separation of waste and a need for emissions reductions. While mitigation has become an urgent issue, the challenge of specific adaptation initiatives is new and vague. In nearly every case, there was little sense of urgency in relation to either vulnerability or preparedness. Those informants who are mo- tivated to act on adaptation issues face difficulties convincing their colleagues and administrators on the basis of broad and uncertain scenarios. They see a clear need for translating the threat of impacts into local consequences and for heightening the need for risk assessment. They also feel, however, that there is sufficient time to achieve the necessary preparation, and that a sense of urgency will be triggered by either actual experience or increased knowledge.

3

Translating the global climate change

discourse to the local

3.1

Introduction

It is increasingly being observed that climatic changes are taking place within all of the world’s continents (Parry et al., 2007a). Therefore, in addition to the widespread attempts to curb the human-influenced emissions of green- house gases through mitigation, there is an increasing need for adaptation to the inevitable consequences of climate change. These consequences include many water-related impacts such as rising sea levels, greater variation in pre- cipitation patterns and increasing flooding risks.

Climate change adaptation has increasingly gained attention since the UN- FCCC introduced it to the global climate change discourse in the mid-1980s (Schipper, 2006). Adaptation is commonly defined as ‘adjustment in ecolog- ical, social, or economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli and their effects or impacts’ (Smit & Pilifosofa, 2001, p. 881). Adap- tation includes both actions towards adaptive capacity so that actors can (bet- ter) adjust to changes and, as it has been understood in this study, towards the implementation of adaptation decisions (Adger et al., 2005).

This chapter deals with how the concept of adaptation is interpreted in policies and how these interpretations are being shaped by their context. Clearly, incentives for adaptation vary between different governmental lay- ers: while national-level governments might be encouraged towards actions by

Chapter 3 Translating the global climate change discourse to the local

an international policy concern from the global discourse, the signal at the local level might stem from a national policy providing rules or incentives to include adaptation as a local policy concern (A. E. Nilsson et al., 2012).

While introduced at the global level, adaptation to the impacts of climate change is primarily not being organised at the global scale (Adger, 2001). Adaptation is commonly seen as a local issue since climate-induced impacts are felt at the local level (e.g. Wilbanks & Kates, 1999; Wilson, 2006; Storbj¨ork, 2010). Accordingly, many of the corresponding responses are found too at the local level (Cutter, 2003). However, many local decisions are shaped by interactions at higher levels that may mandate, encourage and inform actions (Wilbanks & Kates, 1999).

This chapter focuses on the concept of policy translation that was intro- duced to cover processes associated with the ‘travel of ideas’ (Mukhtarov, 2009). Policy translation implies that new rules and practices are not simply applied, but actively reinterpreted before they are put into practice in another setting (Fadeeva, 2005). We analyse how this translation is taking place from a discourse analysis perspective. In doing so, we focus on how global ideas about adaptation were translated to the national and the local governance level in the Netherlands. The following research question was defined for the chapter as:

RQ2 How has adaptation been interpreted in the Dutch water governance context and how have contextual factors influenced the local translation of these interpretations?

Without its dunes and dykes, two-thirds of the Netherlands would flood at high sea and river levels (Huisman, 2004). Because of this, the Netherlands is projected to be one of the most vulnerable parts of Europe (EEA, 2006). Climate change manifests here as an increase in the occurrence and intensity of flooding risk, urban heating and local flooding from extreme showers. Re- cent research confirms that weather patterns in the Netherlands are currently changing (van Dorland, Dubelaar-Versluis, & Jansen, 2010).

The chapter first briefly presents our research methodology and the Dutch water management setting to provide a sketch of the study’s case background. It then describes how adaptation has been interpreted in the Dutch water gov- ernance context by analysing the relevant storylines on adaptation. Following this, the focus is shifted towards the local level while analysing how local fac- tors have influenced the local translation of adaptation and how the storylines have ‘landed’ locally. This chapter concludes with comments on the nature of the translation of the adaptation storylines as well as the most influential factors which explain the variation of local adaptation policies.