Re-examining policy stability in climate adaptation through a lock-in perspective

Groen, Lisanne; Alexander, Meghan; King, Julie P.; Jager, Nicolas Wilhelm; Huitema, Dave

doi:10.1080/13501763.2022.2064535

Cited by 21 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Our study shows that refraining from settling in high-risk areas can reduce future urban exposure to coastal hazards in the EU by 46% until 2100 (considering only new urban development under a high urban growth scenario and the most effective setback zone for every country). Although such solutions often face opposition from local communities and stakeholders due to the redistribution of benefits 39 , 40 , they are slowly being implemented or at least discussed at local scales 41 as awareness of rising sea levels increases and a shift in policy priorities towards optimizing and re-evaluating the effectiveness of expensive engineered adaptation solutions occurs 39 . Therefore, countries possibly have different attitudes towards transformative land use planning.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Setback zones can effectively reduce exposure to sea-level rise in Europe

Wolff

Bonatz

Vafeidis

2023

Sci Rep

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Coastal space is one of the most valuable assets of the EU coastal member states, as the coast is highly urbanized. Hard engineering has traditionally been employed to protect communities in coastal lowlands, but as this alternative becomes less sustainable and more costly, coastal managers are increasingly turning to landuse planning strategies, such as setback zones or managed retreat. To explore the efficiency of these planning tools in reducing future urban exposure to sea-level rise and associated hazards, we developed spatially explicit projections of urban extent that account for different socio-economic futures and various types of setback zones. We find that the establishment of coastal setback zones can reduce the exposure of new urban development by at least 50% in the majority of EU countries by 2100. Our results emphasize that future urban exposure to sea-level rise will be significantly influenced by the ways in which we plan, design, and develop urban space in the EU coastal lowlands.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Setback zones can effectively reduce exposure to sea-level rise in Europe

Wolff

Bonatz

Vafeidis

2023

Sci Rep

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“…We also focus on climate mitigation policy (reflecting the EU's policy focus). Work by scholars on adaptation governance, and on integrative governance approaches toward nature and earth systems, also complement this review (Biesbroek & Candel, 2019; Dupont, 2016; Groen et al, 2023; Rayner & Jordan, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…This neglect is reflected, for instance, in the limited EU legislation on climate adaptation or formal ways to integrate climate change adaptation into key economic policy domains (trade and finance) (Pitzen et al, 2022). However, as mitigation efforts have remained inadequate globally, and as climate change continues apace, adaptation policy has become even more urgent, and has therefore become a key part of the necessary climate policy and governance catch‐up exercise (Candel et al, 2023; Groen et al, 2023; Rayner & Jordan, 2013).…”

Section: Patterns Of Eu Climate Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Three decades of EU climate policy: Racing toward climate neutrality?

Dupont,

Moore,

Boasson

et al. 2023

WIREs Climate Change

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The European Union (EU) began developing climate policy in the 1990s. Since then, it has built up a broad portfolio of mitigation policy measures and governance tools, including legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and policy measures addressing emissions trading, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and more. In 2019, the European Commission—the EU's executive arm—published the European Green Deal (EGD), an overarching policy framework to achieve the goal of climate neutrality by 2050. The EGD aims to push EU climate policy and governance far beyond incremental policy development. In this article, we ask: does the EGD represent a break from past patterns of EU climate governance? We argue that it maintains several past patterns, but nevertheless breaks from other established policy and governance trends. We review insights from politicization and new institutionalist theoretical lenses to help us understand these findings. We reveal certain tensions and challenges inherent in the EU's climate governance approach—around speed and coherence, effectiveness and just transition—that highlight future research needs, and raise questions about the EU's ability to implement its climate policy goals.This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance

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“…For path-breaking, capacities by which actors create new conditions were revisited, such as actors' abilities to dismantle drivers of unsustainability, decentralized forms of self-organization, and context-specific rulemaking (Hölscher et al 2019). Actors that stabilize or reinforce pathways are signified by the reluctance to embrace problem ownership, have relatively more power and can hamper change through coalescing in networks (Groen et al 2022;Jager et al 2022). The different roles actor configurations and relations of power can play for path-breaking are also reflected in governance discourses on disruption.…”

Section: Theoretical Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disrupt and unlock? The role of actors in urban adaptation path-breaking

Teebken

2024

B&C

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Despite the growing demands in what urban adaptation (policy) is expected to address (e.g. systemic injustices), incremental responses are the norm. The role of different actors is investigated for maintaining and breaking path-dependencies in Atlanta, Georgia, US: (1) the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience (MOSR), (2) the Atlanta Beltline Partnership (ABP), and (3) the Stop COP-City/Defend the Atlanta Forest Movement (SCCM). A mixed-method research approach consists of participant observation, document analysis, and interviews. The findings contribute to a better understanding of different forms of disruption and the role actors play in maintaining, reinforcing, and unlocking transformative adaptation pathways. The study shows how the MOSR serves to maintain status quo adaptation pathways. The ABP reinforces status quo interests by disrupting ‘from the middle.’ The SCCM disrupts urban (adaptation) governance ‘from below’ with potential for unlocking new pathways through exposing ‘the Atlanta Way,’ developing new organizational structures and imaginaries that reconcile different struggles of oppression. Whereas actors who disrupt from ‘the middle’ are perceived as a legitimate part of politics, actors who disrupt ‘from below’ are impeded by incumbent actors and their use of disproportionate repression strategies. Practice relevance The goals, organization, and strategies used by different actors in urban adaptation governance reveal how disruption may be identified and whether this leads to unlocking transformative adaptation pathways. All cases are representative of different urban adaptation governance practices, some of which (initially) actively challenged dominant status quo imaginaries of human–nature relationships and associated power relations. Three terrains of disruption are introduced: ‘disruption from above,’ ‘disruption from the middle,’ and ‘disruption from below.’ This differentiation challenges common assumptions of social movements as the only ‘disruptors’ by hinting at the embeddedness of political status in different variants of disruption. The use of force against ‘disruption from below’ unveils a problematic understanding and practices of politics that undermine democratic processes. There is a need to politically (re)engage a different understanding of politics that may as well be ‘disruptive from below’ in the sense of introducing something new and interrupting the established.

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Re-examining policy stability in climate adaptation through a lock-in perspective

Cited by 21 publications

References 48 publications

Setback zones can effectively reduce exposure to sea-level rise in Europe

Setback zones can effectively reduce exposure to sea-level rise in Europe

Three decades of EU climate policy: Racing toward climate neutrality?

Disrupt and unlock? The role of actors in urban adaptation path-breaking

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