Understanding transboundary governance of climate adaptation

1. Understanding transboundary governance of climate adaptation • Enabling and constraining characteristics of the policy arrangements of the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia for cross border cooperation on climate adaptation • Kennis voor Klimaat • Marjolein van Eerd, Carel Dieperink en Mark Wiering.

2. Today’s session • Introduction • The application of the Policy Arrangement Approach • Research results • Concluding remarks and recommendations • Discussion

3. Research background • Climate change effects cross borders • Climate adaptation: ‘the adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities’. • Inherently transboundary in character, yet domestic responsibility • Especially important in river basins

4. Introduction research • Various factors influence transboundary governance • Regime theory • Negotiation approach • Cognitive approach • Which factors enable or constrain transboundary governance on climate adaptation in the Rhine river basin? • Describe and explain transboundary governance on climate adaptation in the Rhine river basin by identifying enabling and constraining policy arrangement characteristics between North Rhine-Westphalia and the Netherlands • Researchers expectation: congruence between regions results in cross border cooperation, while discrepancies could be constraining

5. The Policy Arrangement Approach • Policy Arrangement Approach as analytical research framework • ‘temporary stabilization of the content and organization • of a particular policy domain’ • Four interrelated dimensions are studied • Emerging Policy Arrangements

6. Comparison results (1)

7. Comparison results (2)

8. Concluding remarks • Active cooperation, yet mainly in the water management sector • Various differences that could be constraining • - Stimulating differences? • Also similarities that stimulate cooperation across borders • Improving cooperation across borders? • Increasing congruence between border regions via the discourse dimension

9. Thank you for your attention! • Marjolein van Eerd, m.vaneerd@fm.ru.nl

10. North Rhine-Westphalia • Multiple actors and sectors on multiple levelsconcernedwithclimateadaptation • Diffusion of financial resources, knowledgegeneration is high • More resources allocated to climatemitigation • Various (integrative) climatechangepolicies • Mostly in planning phaseorfocussingonmitigation • Discourses:humancause, mitigation versus adaptation, shift from a ‘safetydiscourse’ to ‘resiliencestrategy’, balancing of interests • Emerging arrangement of climateadaptationgovernance

11. The Netherlands • Also multiple actorson multiple levelsconcernedwithclimateadaptation, • however, mainly in the water sector. • Unique rolefor the Delta Programme • Largeamount of financial and knowledge resources. • First nationaladaptationstrategy climateadaptationincluded in water management: Waterwet, Delta Act • ‘Water accomodation & Room for the River’  ‘climateproof’  ‘Safe Delta’ • Dutch water management: clear, fixed arrangement • Overall climateadaptation: emerging arrangement