From climate research to climate compatible development: experiences and progress in the Netherlands

Abstract

Over the past decades, significant experience has been gained in demand-driven research on climate change in many countries. In the Netherlands, a competitive call for proposals for large research programmes at the interface between policy, science and private sector was issued in 2001. Members of the Dutch climate research community proved they were able to develop two large research programme proposals which were funded: 'Climate changes Spatial Planning' and its successor 'Knowledge for Climate'. The programmes ran from 2004 to 2012 and from 2008 to 2014, respectively. Both programmes can be considered as a 10-year research programme experiment to develop knowledge about both the climate system and climate compatible development by crossing disciplines, institutions and national research funding strategies. Within this 10-year period, a trend can be observed in which a 'top-down' climate impact assessment approach is increasingly combined with a 'bottom-up' approach. Based on the 15 articles presented in this special issue (and others), we argue that this development has enriched both fundamental and applied research on climate adaptation. Despite the predominantly Dutch-oriented scope of the presented research, we believe that such experiences can be of international interest. Climate adaptation research finds itself in between global systems knowledge on the one hand and practical needs and experiences at the local, regional and national level on the other. This demands the utmost from all actors involved to enable an efficient and constructive flow and use of knowledge and expertise.

Joint knowledge production for climate change adaptation: what is in it for science?

“…An inventory identified 14 such temporary programs in various Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, each of them emphasizing the importance of systemic innovation, involvement of societal actors in knowledge production, and the realization of both scientific and nonscientific output (Boon and Horlings 2013). Large climate research programs such as the Dutch programs Climate Changes Spatial Planning, Knowledge for Climate and Living with Water, or the German Klimzug Program are cases in point (Veraart et al 2014). JKP is also one of the spearheads of Future Earth, a recently started 10-year international initiative on global sustainability research (Mauser et al 2013, Groot et al 2014 and is advocated in several position papers (e.g., Driessen et al 2013).…”

“…Knowledge on the scientific merit of JKP has, however, a much weaker empirical basis. Literature suggests that close cooperation between scientists and policy makers can be beneficial for the scientific enterprise (Scholz et al 2000, Wickson et al 2006, Regeer and Bunders 2009, WIMEK 2014, Veraart et al 2014 but also warns against a too one-sided focus on science for rather than science of adaptation (Lövbrand 2011. However, more detailed and systematic empirical insights into the scientific merit of JKP projects are still lacking.…”

Identifying the Potential for Climate Compatible Development Efforts and the Missing Links

“…These discussions in the literature have primarily focused on Least Developed Countries due to concerns about the vulnerability of residents as well as the current and future impact of climate change on realizing established development goals in these contexts [19][20][21]. However, considerations about how addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation intersects with economic development efforts is inevitably a key component of understanding climate change policy in more developed contexts as well [12,22].…”

What if Dutch investors started worrying about flood risk? Implications for disaster risk reduction

“…Crucially, the new proposals imply a partial reallocation of risk, shifting some of the responsibility for mitigating flood damage from the public to the private sector. Current research on flood risk management in the Netherlands revolves around the suitability of these types of measures for the Dutch situation (Veraart et al 2014).…”