Analyzing the Policy Framework for Climate Change Adaptation

This chapter explores how policies and policy-making perform to support climate change adaptation. It reflects on different tools that have been presented in Chapters 2–5 and that can be deployed to support decision-making. It also discusses how current adaptation measures operate to enhance the capacity to respond to climate change impacts in a coherent manner across sectors. In this the chapter draws on a database of tools that were developed as part of the Bottom-Up Adaptation Strategies for a Sustainable Europe project to support climate change adaptation. It also draws on an analysis of EU, national, and sectoral adaptation policy-making to document: (1) the mix of tools that have been used to develop adaptation policy in the EU, national policy contexts, and a number of different contexts; (2) the policy challenges of delivering climate change adaptation specifically related to autonomous and planned adaptation, public–private decision-making, bottom-up adaptation policy-making, and policy implementation; and (3) the extent to which adaptation has been mainstream in key sectoral polices in the EU from the supranational to the local level.