Barriers to climate change adaptation in the Netherlands

Issue title: Adaptation in Delta Regions

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Biesbroek, Robbert | Klostermann, Judith | Termeer, Catrien | Kabat, Pavel

Note: [] All authors are at Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands: Robbert Biesbroek, PhD candidate, Public Administration and Policy group and Earth System Science and Climate Change group (robbert.biesbroek@wur.nl); Judith Klostermann, Researcher, Earth System Science and Climate Change group (judith.klostermann@wur.nl); Catrien Termeer, Full Professor and Chair Holder, Public Administration and Policy group (katrien.termeer@wur.nl); Pavel Kabat, Full Professor and Chair Holder, Earth System Science and Climate Change group (pavel.kabat@wur.nl). This research was funded by the Netherlands BSIK Programme ‘Climate changes Spatial Planning’ (CcSP) and the Strategic Knowledge Development Programme of Wageningen UR on Climate Change (Kennisbasis 2 thema Klimaatverandering) financed by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the 264 respondents who voluntarily completed the survey on barriers to adaptation. We would also like to thank the journal's anonymous referees for their valuable comments. All interpretations, omissions, and errors, however, remain our own responsibility.

Abstract: Review of recent literature on adaptation to climate change and general literature on policy processes shows that there are a large number of barriers that hamper the development and implementation of climate change adaptation strategies. To reduce and manage the number of barriers and combine both streams of literature, we propose seven clusters of barriers to adaptation. Little is known, however, about the relative importance of these barriers to climate change adaptation policies and practices. An online survey was conducted between March 2010 and July 2010 among 264 scientists, policymakers, and private actors from different sectors and levels who are involved in climate change adaptation projects and programmes in the Netherlands. The survey aimed to gather their experiences with, and perceptions of, the barriers identified in the literature and encountered in their daily work. Both climate-related and non-climate-related barriers were included in the survey. Data were subjected to both qualitative and quantitative analysis. A survey feedback workshop was organized to discuss the results with several of the survey respondents. Results of this study revealed that respondents considered conflicting timescales as the most important cluster of barriers to adaptation. Other highly ranked barriers include conflicting interests; lack of financial resources; unclear division of tasks and responsibilities; uncertain societal costs and future benefits; and fragmentation within and between scales of governance. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrated that scales matter in understanding the barriers to adaptation: actors from low levels of governance seem to consider the barriers as more severe than actors from high levels of governance.

DOI: 10.3233/CL-2011-033

Journal: Climate Law, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 181-199, 2011