Mainstreaming climate adaptation: taking stock about “what works” from empirical research worldwide

Regional Environmental Change, Nov 2017

Adaptation to a changing climate is unavoidable. Mainstreaming climate adaptation objectives into existing policies, as opposed to developing dedicated adaptation policy, is widely advocated for public action. However, knowledge on what makes mainstreaming effective is scarce and fragmented. Against this background, this paper takes stock of peer-reviewed empirical analyses of climate adaptation mainstreaming, in order to assess current achievements and identify the critical factors that render mainstreaming effective. The results show that although in most cases adaptation policy outputs are identified, only in a minority of cases this translates into policy outcomes. This “implementation gap” is most strongly seen in developing countries. However, when it comes to the effectiveness of outcomes, we found no difference across countries. We conclude that more explicit definitions and unified frameworks for adaptation mainstreaming research are required to allow for future research syntheses and well-informed policy recommendations.

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Mainstreaming climate adaptation: taking stock about “what works” from empirical research worldwide

Mainstreaming climate adaptation: taking stock about Bwhat works^ from empirical research worldwide Hens Runhaar 0 1 2 3 Bettina Wilk 0 1 2 3 Åsa Persson 0 1 2 3 Caroline Uittenbroek 0 1 2 3 Christine Wamsler 0 1 2 3 Editor: Robbert Biesbroek. 0 1 2 3 0 Stockholm Environment Institute , Stockholm , Sweden 1 Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University and Research , Wageningen , The Netherlands 2 Environmental Governance Group, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University , P.O. Box 80, 115, 3508 TC Utrecht , The Netherlands 3 Lund University Centre for Sustainability Science (LUCSUS) , Lund , Sweden Adaptation to a changing climate is unavoidable. Mainstreaming climate adaptation objectives into existing policies, as opposed to developing dedicated adaptation policy, is widely advocated for public action. However, knowledge on what makes mainstreaming effective is scarce and fragmented. Against this background, this paper takes stock of peer-reviewed empirical analyses of climate adaptation mainstreaming, in order to assess current achievements and identify the critical factors that render mainstreaming effective. The results show that although in most cases adaptation policy outputs are identified, only in a minority of cases this translates into policy outcomes. This Bimplementation gap^ is most strongly seen in developing countries. However, when it comes to the effectiveness of outcomes, we found no difference across countries. We conclude that more explicit definitions and unified frameworks for adaptation mainstreaming research are required to allow for future research syntheses and well-informed policy recommendations. Climate change adaptation; Mainstreaming; Climate policy integration; Systematic literature review; State-of-the-art Introduction Despite agreements made in December 2015 during the COP21 in Paris to reduce CO2 emissions, intensified adaptation efforts are needed to deal with the impacts of a changing climate. As a consequence, adaptation to climate change is considered necessary by many policy-makers and scholars, particularly in policy sectors such as critical infrastructure, agriculture, public health and urban planning (Wamsler 2014; Albers et al. 2015; Wamsler and Pauleit 2016) . In order to do so, policy-makers and planners basically have two options, which are mutually supportive: mainstreaming (integrating) climate change adaptation objectives into existing sectoral policies and practices, or the Bdedicated approach^: developing stand-alone adaptation policies and programmes (Wamsler 2014; Uittenbroek 2014; Dewulf et al. 2015) . Literature suggests that mainstreaming climate adaptation objectives into existing policies and practices has several advantages for achieving sustainable change. First, mainstreaming can create synergy effects; for instance, greening urban spaces not only reduces the risk of pluvial flooding (which is expected to intensify as a consequence of climate change) but also contributes to spatial quality, biodiversity and climate change mitigation (Runhaar et al. 2012) . Second, mainstreaming adaptation objectives in sectoral plans and policies may be more resourceefficient from an administrative and budgetary point of view (Kok and De Coninck 2007) . For instance, “windows of opportunity” can be used for adaptation mainstreaming, such as the construction of new roads or the restructuring of city centres. Third, mainstreaming climate adaptation in existing policies or organisational structures may result in more effective adaptation measures, e.g. if climate risks are included in urban (re)design (Wamsler 2014) . Finally, such mainstreaming may promote innovation in sectoral policies and plans (Adelle and Russel 2013) . However, mainstreaming as a policy strategy has also been critiqued, particularly because of the risks of diminishing issue visibility and attention (Persson et al. 2016) and policy “dilution” (Liberatore 1997) , when compared with a dedicated approach that relies on highly specialised institutional responsibilities, dedicated funds and a clear legal framework. Climate adaptation mainstreaming requires targeted strategies and action, beyond mere aspirations, to be effective and to overcome potential barriers (e.g. Uittenbroek 2016) . While a recent review of the National Communications submitted under the UNFCCC reported a higher number of adaptation initiatives and mainstreaming in almost all policy sectors in 2014 compared with 2010 (Lesnikowski et al. 2016), there are considerable differences in progress across countries, sectors and policy levels (cf. Reckien et al. 2014; Dewulf et al. 2015; Wamsler 2015) . Meta-analyses that have systematically assessed mainstreaming achievements, drivers, barriers and associated theory development are largely lacking (Jordan and Lenschow 2008; Runhaar et al. 2014) . Against this background, this paper takes stock of peerreviewe (...truncated)


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Hens Runhaar, Bettina Wilk, Åsa Persson, Caroline Uittenbroek, Christine Wamsler. Mainstreaming climate adaptation: taking stock about “what works” from empirical research worldwide, Regional Environmental Change, 2017, pp. 1-10, DOI: 10.1007/s10113-017-1259-5