Policy Coordination for National Climate Change Adaptation in Europe: All Process, but Little Power

Duncan Russel, Sergio Castellari, Alessio Capriolo, Suraje Dessai, Mikael Hildén, Anne Jensen, Eleni Karali, Kirsi Mäkinen, Helle Ørsted Nielsen, Sabine Weiland, Roos den Uyl and Jenny Tröltzsch
Additional contact information
Duncan Russel: Department of Politics, University of Exeter, Stocker Rd, Exeter EX4 4 PY, UK
Sergio Castellari: National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, 46128 Bologna, Italy
Alessio Capriolo: ISPRA—Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, 00144 Roma, Italy
Suraje Dessai: Sustainability Research Institute and ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Woodhouse, Leeds LS2 9 JT, UK
Mikael Hildén: Finnish Environment Institute, 00790 Helsinki, Finland
Anne Jensen: Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
Eleni Karali: Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy, 11523 Athens, Greece
Kirsi Mäkinen: The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 00023 Helsinki, Finland
Helle Ørsted Nielsen: Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
Sabine Weiland: European School of Political and Social Sciences (ESPOL), Catholic University of Lille, 59800 Lille, France
Roos den Uyl: Department of Politics, University of Exeter, Stocker Rd, Exeter EX4 4 PY, UK
Jenny Tröltzsch: ECOLOGIC Institute, 10717 Berlin, Germany

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 13, 1-18

Abstract: Climate change adaptation (CCA) is argued to require coordinated policy responses because it is a complex, long-term, knowledge intensive, cross-sectoral, and multi-level governance challenge that involves many interdependencies and actors with different perceptions, goals, and approaches. This study, therefore, examines approaches of a set of European Union (EU) member states (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (England)) to pursue a more coordinated approach to CCA policy. It specifically addresses the co-ordination approaches that the selected countries use for the development and implementation of their national CCA policies in the immediate period following the publication of the EU’s 2013 Adaptation Strategy. The analysis demonstrates that while useful coordination processes have been established in the analyzed EU member states, they have difficulty in challenging existing institutional hierarchies and decision rules. Consequently, longer-term opportunities for managing CCA conflicts and synergies among sectoral policies have to date been limited.

Keywords: climate change adaptation; policy coordination; policy integration; European union; European Union member state; adaptation strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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