Barriers to climate change adaptation in the Netherlands

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 lowlevels of governance seem to consider the barriers as more severe than actors from high levels of governance.

Institutional constraints for adaptive capacity to climate change in Flevoland's agriculture

“…Our and others' results suggest that institutional setting is crucial in water management, especially for the coordination of roles and compromises among different stakeholders. Biesbroek et al (2011) also found that among the most highly ranked barriers to climate change adaptation in the Netherlands -besides short term thinking of the politicians versus long term dynamics of climate change -are conflicting interests (corresponding to our heterogeneity of interests), lack of financial resources, and unclear division of tasks and responsibilities. The results of our study suggested that availability of resources (in particular financial resources) is potentially one of the most constraining CIPs for the implementation of adaptation measures in agriculture.…”

“…Recent literature on adaptation reveals different terms used to describe factors that may hinder implementation of adaptation from an institutional perspective (see review paper of Biesbroek et al (2013) Moser and Ekstrom (2010) and Biesbroek et al (2011) speak about barriers to climate change adaptation. Gupta et al (2010) focus on assessment of adaptive capacity of institutions and propose an assessment framework called the adaptation wheel.…”

“…We modified and added new CIPs to the PICA library of CIAs based on a literature review (e.g. Gupta et al, 2010;Bergsma et al, 2012;Biesbroek et al, 2011;Termeer et al, 2012). Next, the selected CIPs (from the PICA list and the literature) were checked for their relevance with key stakeholders during workshops.…”

“…Bergsma et al, 2012;Biesbroek et al, 2011;de Groot et al, 2006;Gupta et al, 2010;Termeer et al, 2012). Finally, we discussed the results and the draft of this manuscript with a secretary of the provincial board of farmers' organizations and a policy maker on spatial planning and water management from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment.…”

“…The results of our study suggested that availability of resources (in particular financial resources) is potentially one of the most constraining CIPs for the implementation of adaptation measures in agriculture. Interestingly, the importance of financial resources as barriers to adaptation has been often contested (Biesbroek et al, 2011;Gupta et al, 2010;Theesfeld, 2010). In fact, several studies claim that the role of financial resources is generally overestimated and that efforts to create more adaptive capacity by generating more resources is most likely insufficient (Biesbroek et al, 2011;Gupta et al, 2010).…”