Identifying the Potential for Climate Compatible Development Efforts and the Missing Links

Abstract

Those examining climate compatible development and triple-win policy efforts that simultaneously negotiate sustainable development, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation considerations are on the cutting edge of exploring why and how policymakers address complex social problems that require balancing considerations about multiple, interrelated policy issues. Enhancing understanding of factors underlying the emergence of these efforts can help strengthen incentives for action, address implementation challenges, and anticipate inequities. This paper uses survey responses from 287 cities and logistic regression analyses to explore conditions and policy actions associated with potential climate compatible development efforts when economic development, sustainability, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation considerations overlap. It finds evidence that potential climate compatible development efforts were present in 10% of the cities studied. Adaptation was the issue most likely to act as the missing link when each of these other issues influenced city policy actions, and mitigation was the least likely. Contextual factors associated with these efforts included budget stress, leadership from a policy entrepreneur, higher college degree attainment rates, having an environmental department or commission, and the area of the city composed of water versus land. Examining factors associated with these issues acting as missing links revealed contradictions that highlight the necessity of further exploration of processes affecting the pursuit of climate compatible development.

Data, concepts and methods for large‐n comparative climate change adaptation policy research: A systematic literature review

“…Three recurring projects are the MIT‐ICLEI Urban Climate Change Governance Survey (UCGS) and related datasets (Aylett, ; Heidrich et al, ; Heidrich, Dawson, Reckien, & Walsh, ; Reckien et al, ; Shi et al, ), the work within the Urban Transitions Project (Bulkeley, Carmin, Castán Broto, Edwards, & Fuller, ; Bulkeley & Castán Broto, ; Castán Broto & Bulkeley, ), and the work of TRAC3 on National Communications Datasets (Berrang‐Ford et al, ; Lesnikowski et al, ; Lesnikowski et al, ; Lesnikowski et al, ). Similarly, several studies such as those by Araos et al (Araos, Austin, et al, ; Araos, Berrang‐Ford, et al, ), Massey et al (Massey et al, ; Massey & Huitema, ), Kalafatis (Kalafatis, , , ), Stults and Woodruff (Stults & Woodruff, ; Woodruff & Stults, ) reuse their dataset to explore several questions. Kalafatis, for example, uses his results from a survey of 287 cities in the US Great Lakes district to answer questions on the role of climate compatible development (Kalafatis, ), adoption and extension of adaptation across the cities (Kalafatis, ), and under which conditions climate change, sustainability and economic development overlap in cities (Kalafatis, ).…”

“…Similarly, several studies such as those by Araos et al (Araos, Austin, et al, ; Araos, Berrang‐Ford, et al, ), Massey et al (Massey et al, ; Massey & Huitema, ), Kalafatis (Kalafatis, , , ), Stults and Woodruff (Stults & Woodruff, ; Woodruff & Stults, ) reuse their dataset to explore several questions. Kalafatis, for example, uses his results from a survey of 287 cities in the US Great Lakes district to answer questions on the role of climate compatible development (Kalafatis, ), adoption and extension of adaptation across the cities (Kalafatis, ), and under which conditions climate change, sustainability and economic development overlap in cities (Kalafatis, ).…”

“…In some cases, politicians such as mayors are sampled as the highest decision making authority in the city. However, as Kalafatis (2017) note, some respondents (city mayors) were not willing to respond to the survey invitation due to the political nature of adaptation, particularly in the United States (Wood et al, 2014). Similar as for content analysis methods, survey respondents are more likely to report adaptation successes than failures, thereby biasing the dataset.…”

Socioeconomic Reinvention and Expanding Engagement with Climate Change Policy in American Rust Belt Cities

“…Cities that have successfully pursued climate change policies have often done so as a means of reducing spending or meeting economic development goals. Synergies between climate change policies and these other interests have led them to view climate change actions as a "co-benefit" [42] or a "triple-win" that simultaneously allows the city to address mitigation, adaptation, and development [43,44]. In particular, there is evidence that cities overlap economic development considerations with their mitigation and adaptation efforts [45] and that economic development and financial considerations factor into their pursuit of climate change policy [46].…”

The Paradox of Public Trust Shaping Local Climate Change Adaptation

“…Local governments pursue climate change policies because these efforts help them fulfill their own internal goals or reduce perceived threats [2,6]. The presence of particular individuals plays a critical role in determining whether climate change adaptation occurs [7][8][9], as does successfully taking advantage of opportunities to connect adaptation with other initiatives [10][11][12][13][14][15]. Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that local adaptation frequently occurs on an ad hoc decision-by-decision basis, rather than resulting from systematic, comprehensive planning efforts [6,16,17].…”