No abstract

As climate change adaptation has become essential for the sustainable development of nations, national adaptation policies have increasingly been adopted and implemented over the past decade. However, an adaptation gap is observable and getting wider. We investigate the barriers to national adaptation policy and their origins, influence as well as relationships between them in South Korea. We also analyse used and suggested solutions to overcome the barriers. Based on interviews with core stakeholders, we find 49 factors (16 barriers, 14 origins, 19 influences) related to barriers to national adaptation policy and draw a barrier map that shows all factors and relationships between them. We also explain how the barriers occur and how they affect national adaptation policy by mapping the relationships between barriers, origins, and influences. Key barriers to Korea’s national adaptation policy are related to institutions, fragmentation, and resources. With an analysis of used/suggested solutions, we conclude by suggesting a procedure for diagnosing problems of national adaptation policy, understanding related barriers and origins, and devising practical solutions for national policymakers and stakeholders.

Climate change risks have become a major concern of climate change adaptation, and a systematic risk assessment is required as the first step as well as a key principle of national adaptation policy processes. Although many countries conducted risk assessments, a debate over a systematic assessment process continues, and results of the risk assessment provide limited information to making adaptation policies. Based on a case study of South Korea, this research aims to establish a national-level risk assessment process which includes systematic methodologies given the current limited time/resource and insufficient climate change information. A four-step risk assessment process is proposed: (1) collecting scientific evidence, (2) making list of preliminary risks, (3) making lists of risks and prioritising the risks, (4) categorising the risks. Enough scientific evidence and data about climate change risks of Korea were retained through first two steps, and three components of risk (hazard, exposure, vulnerability) are systematically involved by assessing the magnitude and adaptive capacity of risks. As results of the risks assessment, 93 national-level climate change risks of Korea are identified, and most high priorities in risks have high risk magnitude but low adaptive capacity. This research provided insights for direction of national adaptation policy of each sector by categorising the risks into four categories.

Non-technical Summary As adaptation deficits become increasingly evident and widespread, barriers to adaptation draw more attention as a key reason. However, the current understanding of the barriers is limited, making it challenging to provide practical solutions for real-world adaptation policy processes. This study aims to identify the origins, influences, and relationships of common barriers to national adaptation policy processes, and to analyse their causal mechanisms. The findings present a barrier map that illustrates potential causal mechanisms of common barriers to national adaptation policy processes and, based on it, suggest a systematic approach for practical solutions. Technical Summary Despite progress in national adaptation policies in the last two decades, the adaptation deficit is getting wider and barriers to adaptation are regarded as a key reason for it. However, our understanding of barriers to adaptation does not help improve real adaptation processes. Based on South Korean and UK cases, this study identified 17 common barriers to national adaptation policy processes and placed them in four categories. It also identified the barriers' origins and influences, drew a common barrier map underlying national adaptation policy processes and identified causal mechanisms of the common barriers, which were limitedly addressed in the earlier literature. The results highlight that understanding the causal mechanisms of barriers to national adaptation policy processes is important to devise practical solutions to overcome barriers and improve the effectiveness of real adaptation processes. The findings also offer a practical understanding of common barriers to national adaptation policy, which can help adaptation policy stakeholders and practitioners to diagnose policy problems, analyse what barriers and origins are related to the problems, decide what should be addressed first to solve the problems, and ultimately make efforts to reduce the current adaptation deficit. Social Media Summary New study identifies causal mechanisms of 17 common barriers to national adaptation policy processes & suggests a systematic approach to overcome the barriers.

This poster session complements the related session on the Land stage, and through poster presentations and discussion will consider enablers and barriers to the practice of adaptation drawing primarily experience in the UK and Europe