The diffusion of climate change adaptation policy

Schoenefeld, Jonas J., Schulze, Kai and Bruch, Nils (2022) The diffusion of climate change adaptation policy. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 13 (3). ISSN 1757-7780

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Abstract

Adapting to some level of climate change has become unavoidable. However, there is surprisingly limited systematic knowledge about whether and how adaptation policies have diffused and could diffuse in the future. Most existing adaptation studies do not explicitly examine policy diffusion, which is a form of interdependent policy-making among jurisdictions at the same or across different levels of governance. To address this gap, we offer a new interpretation and assessment of the extensive adaptation policy literature through a policy diffusion perspective; we pay specific attention to diffusion drivers and barriers, motivations, mechanisms, outputs, and outcomes. We assess the extent to which four motivations and related mechanisms of policy diffusion—interests (linked with learning and competition), rights and duties (tied to coercion), ideology, and recognition (both connected with emulation)—are conceptually and empirically associated with adaptation. We also engage with adaptation policy characteristics, contextual conditions (e.g., problem severity) and different channels of adaptation policy diffusion (e.g., transnational networks). We demonstrate that adaptation policy diffusion can be associated with different mechanisms, yet many of them remain remarkably understudied. So are the effects of adaptation policy diffusion in terms of changes in vulnerability and resilience. We thus identify manifold avenues for future research, and provide insights for practitioners who may hope to leverage diffusion mechanisms to enhance their adaptation efforts.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Funding Information: Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	climate change adaptation,policy diffusion,policy innovation,policy learning,public policy,geography, planning and development,global and planetary change,atmospheric science,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3305
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	18 Mar 2022 16:30
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 17:37
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/84133
DOI:	10.1002/wcc.775

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