A framework to diagnose barriers to climate change adaptation Susanne C.Moser and Julia A.Ekstrom

1. A framework to diagnose barriers to climate change adaptationSusanne C.Moser and Julia A.Ekstrom Xia Sun MEA593 Presentation 04/09/2013

2. Objective • A systematic framework to identify barriers that may impede the process of adaptation to climate change • Intentional, planned adaptation

3. Meanings differ by field and in practice what is Adaptation ?

4. Two definitions • Definition from IPCC TAR (“Technology” paper): Adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities. • Definition from “barrier” paper: Adaptation involves changes in social-ecological systems in response to actual and expected impacts of climate change in the context of interacting nonclimatic changes. Adaptation strategies and actions can range from short-term coping to long-term, deeper transformations, aim to meet more than climate change goals alone, and may or may not succeed in moderating harm or exploiting beneficial opportunities.

5. Compare with IPCC definition···· • Adaptation must consider, but may not be justified by, climate change alone -- may be initiated or undertaken by nonclimatic opportunities (e.g., land-use plan updates, infrastructure replacement, renovating a building) • Moderating harm and exploiting beneficial opportunities is contingent on many factors -- effectiveness in outcome assumed in IPCC definition is premature • IPCC distinguishes natural and human systems – here most interested in the social-ecological systems

6. Barriers or Limits ? What is barrier ?

7. Limits ? • Limits are obstacles that tend to be absolute in a real sense: they constitute thresholds beyond which existing activities, land uses, ecosystems, species, sustenance, or system states cannot be maintained, not even in a modified fashion. • Some physical and ecological limits have been overcome with technological innovations (e.g. genetic modification of crops to increase heat tolerance). • Limits that can be overcome are barriers !!!

8. Barriers? • Barriers are defined as obstacles that can be overcome with concerted effort, creative management, change of thinking, prioritization, and related shifts in resources, land uses, institutions, etc. • In many instances, the barrier may appear as limits in practice (e.g., a law). • Barrier-free process is not a sufficient condition to guarantee adaptation success! • Even the best adaptation should not be expected to be barrier-free !

9. Scale or scope of adaptation • Particular scope and scale of adaptation → choosing different adaptation actions or pathways → number and types of barriers activated and encountered

10. Applicable to a wide range of adaptation cases Not overly confining what is the diagnostic framework?

11. Four principles • Socially focused but ecologically constrained • Actor-centric but context-aware • Process-focused but action/outcome-oriented • Iterative and messy but linear for convenience

12. Three key components • An idealized depiction of a rational approach to adaptation decision-making ; • A set of interconnected structural elements include the actors, the larger context in which they act (e.g., governance), and the object on which they act (the system of concern that is exposed to climate change) ; • A simple matrix helps locate points of intervention to overcome a given barrier.

13. Process of Adaptation

15. Structural elements of adaptation • Table 1S?wh • ere

16. What could impede the adaptation process ? How do the actors, context, and system of concern contribute to barrier? Where are barriers ?

17. Identifyingbarriers throughout the adaptation process

20. Crosscutting issues-----repeated and crosscutting important barriers • Leadership • Most important in initiating the process and sustaining momentum over time • Not restrict to formal leadership and not to just one individual • Leaders with high skill levels and strong qualities of integrity tend to be more trusted • Resources • Including, financial means, technical/info resources, technology, staff expertise, and time • Communication and information • Whether, which and how info is created • How it is communicated • Who delivers and receives it • Values and beliefs • How people perceive, interpret, and think about risks and their management • What info and knowledge they value • What concerns have standing and so on

21. Overcoming barriers: scales of influence • temporal dimension: contemporary vs. legacy • Spatial/jurisdictional dimension (sometimes coincide, others differ in scale): proximate vs. remote

22. Case 1: A budget crisis results in an agency, charged with providing technical assistance to the local process, now having insufficient staff to do so. Case 2: A local official may want to find scientific information on vulnerability but cannot locate any relevant research to her community. Because federal agencies in years past have not provided funding to conduct such research. Case 3: The official finds that not all participants are at the table that should be and decides to extend invitations to those additional people for the next meeting. Case 4: The same official may find that a local law prevents taking a certain adaptation action. A B C D

23. Discussion • Overcoming barriers is not as straightforward as building adaptive capacity ?! • Whether “performance” at each of the stages could become a more useful and tangible measure of adaptive capacity ? • Future research must explore the range of pathways actors have found to overcome the specific adaptation barriers they encountered.

24. Framework to Diagnose BARRIERS to Adaptation Questions?