Understanding policy integration in the EU—Insights from a multi-level lens on climate adaptation and the EU’s coastal and marine policy

Abstract

Integration of relatively new policy tasks like climate adaptation into established higher-level policy field is insufficiently understood in the academic literature. This paper proposes a framework to evaluate the integration of climate adaptation into the sectoral policy-making of the European Commission, particularly following the publication of the EU Adaptation Strategy (in 2013). The paper uses a framework of micro, meso and macro-level institutional behaviour drawing strongly on new institutionalism perspectives to identify and explain factors enabling and hindering policy integration. It focuses on integration in the coastal and marine policy sector, which is expected to be particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, and draws from data collected through systemic document review and interviews with key informants. The findings show that integration of climate adaptation is still at an early stage. The integration process appears to be largely dependent on institutional dynamics at the EU-level combined with how member states and wider sectoral stakeholders engage with adaptation concerns. In particular ambivalence of some member states and a lack of urgency among sectoral stakeholders has hampered the integration of adaptation goals.

Linking Environmental Policy Integration and the Water-Energy-Land-(Food-)Nexus: A Review of the European Union’s Energy, Water, and Agricultural Policies

“…The energy and agriculture sectors instead form their own DGs. Such different sub-units usually act based on historically grown-and thus different-sets of formal and informal rules and processes, which can be inconsistent or conflicting, thus making policy integration hard to reach [96]. This fragmented responsibility is in line with our finding that these two sectors show a relatively weak level of policy coherence.…”

Incorporating climate change adaptation into marine protected area planning

“…This includes cases where policy frameworks and related legislation are not designed to accommodate climate change adaptation. For example, recent updates to MPA policy documents for the European Union do not discuss climate change adaptation (Russel, den Uyl, & de Vito, 2018). Scotland's Marine Act gives reference to how climate change mitigation can be incorporated but does not address adaptation (Hopkins, Bailey, & Potts, 2016b).…”

Multilevel Climate Governance, Anticipatory Adaptation, and the Vulnerability‐Readiness Nexus

“…Numerous studies examine the association of intergovernmental collaboration and public policy. These include coordinated adaptation actions (Ampaire et al, 2017; De Stefano & Hernandez‐Mora, 2018; Huitema et al, 2016), climate policy integration or coordination (e.g., Birchall & Bonnett, 2019; Clar, 2019; Dovers & Hezri, 2010; Russel, den Uyl, & De Vito, 2018; Urwin & Jordan, 2008; Wamsler, Luederitz, & Brink, 2014), climate policy coherence (England et al, 2018; Scobie, 2016), cross‐scalar policy networks (e.g., Gregorio et al, 2019; Harman, Taylor, & Land, 2015), hierarchical multilevel governance (e.g., Phuong, Biesbroek, & Wals, 2018), polycentric governance (e.g., Dorsch & Flachsland, 2017), and intergovernmental networks or network(ed) governance (e.g., Armitage, Berkes, Dale, Kocho‐Schellenberg, & Patton, 2011; Juhola & Westerhoff, 2011; Schwartz, 2019; Tosun & Schoenefeld, 2017).…”

“…Recent research focuses on the role of climate governance in the adaptation process (c.f., Ampaire et al, 2017; Amundsen, Berglund, & Westskog, 2010; Bulkeley, 2013; Bulkeley & Betsill, 2005; Cuevas, Peterson, Robinson, & Morrison, 2016; Dovers & Hezri, 2010; Engle & Lemos, 2010; Göpfert, Wamsler, & Lang, 2019; Hlahla, Nel, & Hill, 2019; Juhola & Westerhoff, 2011; Lund, 2018; Naess, Bang, Eriksen, & Vevatne, 2005; Oulahen et al, 2018; Phuong et al, 2018; Rashidi & Patt, 2018; Russel et al, 2018). Key elements of interest in these studies involve varying forms of policy process.…”