scholarly journals Climate change adaptation and local government: Institutional complexities surrounding Cape Town’s Day Zero

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Godwell Nhamo ◽  
Adelaide O. Agyepong
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Landmark Learning

The challenges associated with climate change in local governments are growing daily. One such challenge is water security, an aspect that draws us to the subject matter of climate change adaptation. This article discusses findings about institutional complexities surrounding Day Zero, a concept associated with water taps running dry because of drought conditions as aggravated by climate change in the city of Cape Town, South Africa. The thrust on institutional complexities is deliberate, as this affects how crisis situations like Day Zero were handled. The data were generated mainly from the actor–actant–network theory, events study as well as document and discourse analysis methods. The actor–actant–network theory is used widely to trace how actors (humans) and actants (non-human phenomena) interact in space and time through their networks, following narratives like Day Zero, and act on climate-related matters. The analysis applied elements of grounded theory, resulting in categories and themes emerging for discussion. The article found that narratives surrounding Day Zero were embedded in both political and administrative dilemmas and red tape. Despite these challenges, the article concludes that Day Zero remains one of the landmark learning points for climate change adaptation and water security in Cape Town, South Africa, and in other cities across the world. The article recommends that Day Zero experiences continue to be embraced positively and documented further to enhance local government climate adaptation for water security currently and into the future as well.

scholarly journals Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation into Planning and Development: A Case Study in Northern Ireland

2021 ◽  
pp. 129-147
Author(s):  
Cathy Burns ◽  
Stephen Flood ◽  
Barry O’Dwyer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Adaptation Planning ◽  
Policy And Planning

AbstractThis study outlines the adaptation planning journey undertaken by Derry City and Strabane District Council (DCSDC) in Northern Ireland and reflects how the prevailing policy context and level of organisational adaptive capacity create the conditions for mainstreaming climate adaptation into planning and development. This chapter explores the potential of local government in Northern Ireland to integrate local authority policy drivers such as disaster risk reduction (DRR), emergency planning, risk and assurance, and community resilience. The ability to communicate risks and solutions was identified as an important consideration when undertaking adaptation planning, particularly when discussing the adaptation planning process and securing input or support from colleagues. Moreover, a significant amount of engagement was required with local government agencies to increase understanding of the relevance of climate change and DRR. Embedding DRR and climate change adaptation (CCA) within local authority policy and planning can enable a greater understanding of specific risks to local governments and act as a catalyst for further action.

Climate Change Adaptation Strategies of Local Governments in Japan

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenshi Baba ◽  
Masahiro Matsuura ◽  
Taiko Kudo ◽  
Shigeru Watanabe ◽  
Shun Kawakubo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Sports Science ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

The latest climate change adaptation strategies adopted by local governments in Japan are discussed. A nationwide survey demonstrates several significant findings. While some prefectures and major cities have already begun to prepare adaptation strategies, most municipalities have yet to consider such strategies. This gap must be considered when studying the climate adaptation strategies of local governments in Japan, as municipal governments are crucial to the implementation of climate adaptation strategies due to high diversity in climate impacts and geographical conditions among municipalities within each prefecture in Japan. Key challenges for local governments in preparing adaptation strategies are the lack of expert knowledge and experience in the field of climate change adaptation, and compartmentalization of government bureaus. To address these issues, an interview study of six model prefectures in the SI-CAT (Social Implementation Program on Climate Change Adaptation Technology) project by the MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) was conducted in order to understand the details of challenges raised by adaptation among local governments in Japan. The survey results reveal that local government officials lack information regarding impact projections and tools for evaluating policy options, even though some of them recognize some of the impacts of climate change on rice crop, vegetable, and fruit production. In addition, different bureaus, such as agriculture, public health, and disaster prevention, focus on different outcomes of climate change due to their different missions. As this is the inherent nature of bureaucratic organizations, a new approach for encouraging collaboration among them is needed. The fact that most of the local governments in Japan have not yet assessed the local impacts of climate change, an effort that would lay the groundwork for preparing adaptation strategies, suggests the importance of cyclical co-design that facilitates the relationship between climatic technology such as climate models and impact assessment and local governments’ needs so that the technology developments clarify the needs of local government, while those needs in turn nurture the seeds of technology.

scholarly journals Adaptation confusion? A longitudinal examination of the concept “climate change adaptation” in Norwegian municipal surveys.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torbjørn Selseng ◽  
Marit Klemetsen ◽  
Tone Rusdal
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Building Society ◽  
Questions And Answers ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
Longitudinal Examination

AbstractIn recent decades, there has been a surge in the scholarship on climate change adaptation (CCA) terminology and diverging interpretations of the term has emerged. Given the crucial role of local governments in building society-wide adaptive capacity, understanding how municipalities understand and interpret CCA, is important. In this study, we analyse twelve large-scale questionnaires from 2007 to 2020 distributed to all Norwegian municipalities. Using a combination of directed and conventional content analysis of the questions and answers, we summarise and map the progress of adaptation work over the 14 years and assess the consistency and the scope of the surveys in light of the current research on climate adaptation. We find diverging views on what adaptation entails, both from the researchers, in the phrasing of questions, and from the respondents. The empirical evidence suggests an overall imbalanced interpretation of CCA, both in terms of the risks and consequences we may face, the climate that needs adapting to, as well as adequate adaptation strategies. We go on to discuss the implications of these findings, highlighting the need for a shared and well-communicated framework for local CCA and a closer monitoring of the actual efforts of the municipalities. If instead left unchecked, this confusion might lead to unsustainable maladaptation at the local government level throughout Norway and beyond.

scholarly journals Assessing South Africa’s Potential to Address Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in the Fisheries Sector

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Ortega-Cisneros ◽  
Kevern L. Cochrane ◽  
Nina Rivers ◽  
Warwick H. H. Sauer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Marine Fisheries ◽  
Address Climate Change

The marine fisheries sector is one of the most important income sectors in South Africa and plays an important role in food security for small-scale and subsistence fishers. Climate-driven impacts have resulted in distribution shifts and declines in abundance of important fisheries targets, with negative consequences to the users dependent on these resources. The sustainability of the sector depends on its readiness to adapt to climate change. The inclusion of climate change impacts and adaptation in fisheries management documents in South Africa is essential to ensure adequate climate adaptation responses are implemented at the short- and long-term. This study aims to 1) determine if the relevant fisheries national management documents address climate change and adaptation, 2) determine if the relevant national climate change documents address climate change and adaptation in the fisheries sector and 3) evaluate the extent to which fisheries management documents address climate change and adaptation. A content analysis of fisheries management and climate change documents was carried out to determine if they incorporated information on climate change impacts and adaptation and marine fisheries respectively. Fisheries management documents were then screened against nine pre-determined criteria (or themes) based on climate change adaptation to determine the level of inclusion of best practice for climate change adaptation. Results indicate that climate change impacts and adaptation are rarely incorporated in the main fisheries management documents, except for the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Plan for the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors. However, this document is still waiting to be adopted. The only direct reference identified in all the fisheries documents that supports climate change adaptation was ‘conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity’. With regards to indirect references to climate change adaptation, ‘equity,’ ‘participatory management,’ and ‘capacity building’ were most frequently incorporated in fisheries management documents. There is a need to explicitly incorporate information on climate change impacts and adaptation in South African fisheries management documents and increase the human and financial capacity at national institutions to ensure that the fisheries sector can adequately adapt to climate change.

Philippine Institutions and Complex Institutional Arrangements for Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sining Cuevas ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Local Agriculture ◽  
Institutional Dimension

Addressing climate change necessitates creating new, or building the capacity of old, institutions. Institutions are vital tools that determine the intensity by which climate change considerations are incorporated into the decision-making process, designs, and plans. This article aims to illustrate that it is necessary to understand the institutional environment where the CCA endeavors will be implemented such that local climate change adaptation (CCA) policies, plans, and programs can be implemented effectively. The paper also intends to demonstrate that, along with the scientific and technological discussions, institutional conversations should be among the initial vital steps in CCA planning, and that the institutional dimension should be the foundation of broader reforms toward an effective CCA implementation. The paper accomplished this by investigating the conditions in the local agriculture and CCA in the Philippines. The paper applied the Institutional Environment Matrix as the main analytical framework. The analysis showed that the existing institutional dynamics in the Philippines have impacted the effectiveness of the introduced CCA policies and efforts. The Local Government Code of the Philippines had counterproductive interplays with other institutional rules; first in agriculture, and afterwards, in CCA. The Code has devolved tasks to the local governments, provided local government units with extensive authority over their jurisdictions, and improved autonomy in local governance. However, it lacks the arrangements that would create (dis)incentives for individual and collective actions (i.e., rewards and penalties, payoffs on actions). Likewise, institutional mechanisms to support the devolution of government services are wanting. Such institutional environment in local governance has curtailed the effectiveness of local agricultural policies and the efficient implementation of new CCA policies. This article advocates that analyzing the institutional environment where the CCA endeavors will be implemented will enable policy makers and CCA planners to understand better and to have deeper perception of the interlinkages between and among institutional arrangements. In the case of the Philippines, if the local agricultural institutional environment was considered in the design and implementation of the CCA policies, institutional support mechanisms that can address the existing issues and concerns in local agriculture may have been incorporated into these policies. Such action may have helped implementers to avoid the same difficulties in operationalizing CCA initiatives. Accordingly, the paper analyzed how CCA is operationalized through an institutional lens, and presented how institutional analysis is important in policy making. It further demonstrated the complexity of institutional linkages and raised the conversation on the institutional dimension of CCA.

scholarly journals Urban climate adaptation and the reshaping of state–society relations: The politics of community knowledge and mobilisation in Indore, India

Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 1766-1782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric K Chu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Political Networks ◽  
Infrastructure Provision ◽  
Indian City ◽  
Urban Futures ◽  
Adaptation Processes

Current research on climate change adaptation in cities highlights the role of local governments in facilitating adaptation actions, but rarely assesses whether (and if so, how) local communities organise around emerging climate priorities to affect political change. This paper explores changing state–society relationships through the reconstitution of community collectives and advocacy organisations for advancing climate change adaptation in the Indian city of Indore. The paper shows that communities are indeed recognising the need for adaptation but are, at the same time, integrating adaptation actions with existing strategies for advocating development rights. Communities are also rebuilding alliances between municipal and local institutions for public service and infrastructure provision, which point to the centrality of community politics in urban climate adaptation processes. However, such mobilisations are often dependent on existing political networks and a legacy of advocacy around poverty alleviation needs, which sideline more transformative agendas around inclusiveness, equity, and resilient urban futures.

scholarly journals Framing the challenge of climate change adaptation for Victorian local governments

2013 ◽  
Vol 125 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Hartmut Fünfgeld
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Climatic Trends ◽  
Government Sector ◽  
Management Perspective ◽  
Response Measures

Climate change adaptation, although dependent on our understanding of current and future climatic trends, is predominantly a social and institutional process. This becomes evident when studying how organisations actually respond to and prepare for climate change impacts. This paper explores the notion of framing climate change adaptation as a process of organisational development and change in the local government sector. Local governments, as the tier of government closest to the community, provide a raft of services to residents and businesses, many of which may be affected by the impacts of a changing climate. Local governments in Victoria and elsewhere have been at the forefront of assessing climatic risks and opportunities, as well as devising strategies and response measures to address these risks. The growing evidence of adaptation planning in the local government sector suggests that adaptation can be framed in many different ways, although a risk management perspective is frequently applied. Increasingly, adaptation to climate change is conceptualised as an ongoing, flexible process that needs to be fully embedded in the local and organisational context. This paper discusses the conceptual and organisational framing of climate change adaptation, illustrated by examples of the diversity of adaptation approaches taken by local governments in Victoria.

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