Institutional diagnostics of climate adaptation

Institutions are one of the decisive factors for climate adaptation. Nevertheless, current understanding of the institutions-adaptation-nexus is fragmented across the scientific community; is often theoretically ad-hoc or eclectic and at times contradictory. Moreover, knowledge claims are typically raised either for specific cases or overly generic, whereas a diagnostic method may be most effective for cross-case learning about institutional deficits and success factors in climate adaptation. This study develops an institutional diagnostics approach to climate adaptation by means of a systematic meta-analysis of 52 studies comprising 120 cases from Europe. The results show that maladaptation, adaptation barriers and limits are rooted in institutional deficits that can be depicted as archetypical patterns of institutional attributes. Moreover, the results reveal success factors that enabled actors to prevent, alleviate or overcome specific institutional deficits in climate adaptation. Based on this, a set of diagnostic questions is provided for future in-depth institutional analyses of adaptation. Enhancing our capacities to diagnose causes of maladaptation, adaptation barriers and limits is crucial so as to device governance arrangements that match the features of specific adaptation problems

Determinants of the capacity to adapt to climate change in multi-level governance systems - a meta-analysis of case study evidence

Determinants of the capacity to adapt to climate change in multi-level governance systems Determinants of the capacity to adapt to climate change in multi-level governance systems - a meta-analysis of case study evidenceBackground: Current literature about climate change adaptation provides a broad range of factors influencing the adaptive capacity. Furthermore, a frequent tenor is that “scale matters”. However, the effects of institutional interplay across governance levels on adaptive capacity and the effects of the interaction of institutions with other variables such as technology and information remain largely subject of debate. Therefore synthesizing the diverse findings of empirical studies in a methodologically coherent and integrative manner may provide theoretical foundations for answers on how to organize enhanced adaptive capacity within and across governance levels. Method: 1\. Against this background we develop a comprehensive multi-tier framework of variables that systematically influence adaptive capacity. This is done by adopting the conceptual groundwork of the Institutional Analysis and Development framework (Ostrom 1990; Ostrom/Gardner/Walker 1994; Ostrom 2005) and with special focus on cross-level variable interactions. 2\. We apply this framework of variables to the case of urban areas and conduct a model-centered meta-analysis of empirical studies in order to identify patterns in which urban adaptive capacity is determined by institutional interplay and variable interactions within and across governance levels. Results: The main results are: 1\. The study provides a comprehensive and coherent multi-tier framework of variables determining adaptive capacity. 2\. The analysis of urban adaptive capacity indicates that the level of urban adaptive capacity is attributable to the congruence of multiple variables. 3\. Specific patterns of conjoint causation are identified for financial, informational, and institutional multi-level-interactions of determinants of urban adaptive capacity. Conclusions: This multi-tier framework seems to be very promising for a better understanding of adaptive capacity and thereby for influencing vulnerability to climate change. It provides a meaningful background for future studies and may foster cumulative research on adaptive capacity. Moreover, it offers a tool for further investigations of level- and cross-level-dynamics

Economics, institutions and adaptation to climate change

Adaptation to the consequences of climate change has attracted increasing interest as a necessary complement to greenhouse gas mitigation. Economic approaches to climate adaptation are rarely articulated and discussed explicitly despite many benefits of such a framework-level discourse. Therefore, this article investigates how climate adaptation is framed and approached in economics and attempts to contribute to the development of economic frameworks of climate adaptation. First, the paper identifies and critically reviews four major strands of current adaptation economics: estimation of adaptation benefits and costs, strategies for adaptation, the role of markets and governments, and policy instruments for adaptation. While having their merits, serious methodical difficulties prevail. Moreover, the applied neoclassical framing seems too narrow to capture the plethora of governance challenges and normative criteria revealed in adaptation policy discourses and in the multidisciplinary adaptation literature. The second part of this article outlines an institutional economics approach to climate adaptation that addresses caveats in the current state-of-the-art and offers additional concepts to study climate adaptation. Moreover, promising methods and strategies for adaptation research are presented and future research directions suggested. Finally, the paper assesses the normative foundations of climate adaptation economics and their implications for positive adaptation research

Overcoming barriers to urban adaptation through international cooperation? Modes and design properties under the UNFCCC

This study examines by which design properties international cooperation can effectively facilitate specific climate adaptation processes at the local level. First, a qualitative meta-analysis of empirical evidence from 23 cases is conducted to identify archetypal patterns of barriers and change factors for climate adaptation in urban squatter settlements and in municipal public sectors in low- and middleincome countries. Second, five modes of international cooperation for climate adaptation are characterized based on UNFCCC documents, process observation and literature review. Third, these results are combined to derive testable propositions about how selected design properties of international cooperation can facilitate local efforts to overcome barriers to urban adaptation in lowand middle-income countries. Findings indicate, first, that a major step to tackle adaptation barriers in squatter settlements is improvements of the status of urban poor in the public sector. Second, national or regional centres of competence are means to foster endogenous dynamics in municipal public sectors. Third, national adaptation policies are arrangements to enable and incentivise municipal adaptation. Fourth, flexible indicators of adaptation benefits are instruments to target international decision making and monitoring systems to local needs. It is finally discussed how these insights and methods can be used to advance the study of international cooperation, barriers and success factors for climate change adaptation

A diagnostic approach to the institutional analysis of climate adaptation

Economics has a key role to play for understanding vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. However, economic approaches to climate adaptation are rarely articulated and discussed at a framework level. This article first reviews and critically assesses welfare economics approaches to climate adaptation and, secondly, develops a novel institutional economics approach to climate adaptation. Concepts and tools of welfare economics have contributed to assessments of benefits and costs of adaptation; outlined strategies for adaptation; identified responsibilities of the public sector and described policy instruments for adaptation. However, the neoclassical framing of collective action based on the concept of market failure seems too narrow to do analytical justice to the multitude of governance challenges associated with adaptation. Adaptation economics seems underequipped with analytical tools to study the role of institutions for climate adaptation. Therefore, an institutional economics approach to climate adaptation is developed and illustrated. This approach contributes to integrated economic analyses of climate adaptation in three major ways: First, by broadening the scope of climate adaptation economics; second, by delivering a diagnostic framework of climate adaptation that enables the analyst to explain adaptation processes in a systematic manner, synthesizes findings from a large number of research efforts, places particular research questions, governance problems and results in a broader context, and can guide the design of theoretical and empirical inquiries of climate adaptation; third, by offering research strategies and methods for developing generalisable and valid insights in the face of pronounced heterogeneity and diversity of climate adaptation

Avenues of archetype analysis: roots, achievements, and next steps in sustainability research

Recent years have seen a proliferation of studies that use archetype analysis to better understand and to foster transitions toward sustainability. This growing literature reveals a common methodological ground, as well as a variety of perspectives and practices. In this paper, we provide an historical overview of the roots of archetype analysis from ancient philosophy to recent sustainability science. We thereby derive core features of the archetype approach, which we frame by eight propositions. We then introduce the Special Feature, “Archetype Analysis in Sustainability Research,” which offers a consolidated understanding of the approach, a portfolio of methods, and quality criteria, as well as cutting-edge applications. By reflecting on the Special Feature’s empirical and methodological contributions, we hope that the showcased advances, exemplary applications, and conceptual clarifications will help to design future research that contributes to collaborative learning on archetypical patterns leading toward sustainability. The paper concludes with an outlook highlighting central directions for the next wave of archetype analyses

Governing spillovers of agricultural land use through voluntary sustainability standards: A coverage analysis of sustainability requirements

Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) are prominent governance instruments that define and verify sustainable agricultural land use at farm and supply chain levels. However, agricultural production can prompt spillover dynamics with implications for sustainability that go beyond these scales, e.g., through runoff of chemical inputs or long-distance migrant worker flows. Scientific evidence on the governance of spillovers through VSS is, however, limited. This study investigates the extent to which VSS regulate a set of 21 environmental and socio-economic spillovers of agricultural land use. To this end, we assessed the spillover coverage in 100 sustainability standards. We find that VSS have a clear tendency to cover environmental spillovers more extensively than socio-economic spillovers. Further, we show how spillover coverage differs across varying types of standard-setting organizations and VSS verification mechanisms. Finally, we discuss the role and limitations that VSS can have in addressing the revealed gaps