Susanne Moser: Barriers and Limitations to Adaptation Posed by Governance | IHDP

At this week’s Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, geographer Susanne Moser, co-editor of 2007’s Creating a Climate for Change, convened a panel on “Barriers and Limitations to Adaptation Posed by Governance.” She writes in her abstract:

Until recently, the discourse about adaptation to climate change has tended to argue that highly developed countries like the US have adequate adaptive capacity and ample ability to realize it without significant problems. ...

This presentation integrates findings from interviews and a comprehensive survey of California coastal managers, as well as other insights to suggest that the confidence in that state’s ability to deal with the impacts of climate change may be overstated. It also describes the rapidly growing demand for adaptation planning among local governments, and highlight California’s emerging efforts to overcome governance challenges through legislative and administrative actions. …

The study raises difficult, if not “taboo” questions about the multiple and sometimes conflicting roles of government, the effectiveness of governance, contradictions in coastal law, and constitutional obstacles, that must be addressed if coastal regions want to effectively meet the challenges of adapting to climate change.

Conference convened by IHDP, the International Human Dimensions Programme.

The link below goes directly to the pdf of panel abstracts.