Political Barriers to the Implementation of Climate Change Adaptation Policies: How Does the Political Framing of Climate Change Affect Decision Making in the Case of Switzerland
Year: 2011
Type: preprint
Abstract: Adaptation policies are blooming in Europe but concrete policy changes and the implementation of additional measures still occur too rarely. We argue that this is partially due to political barriers intervening during the policy process. In support for our argument, we analyse how adaptation is framed by policymakers during decision process and how this influence the likeliness of successful implementation. This article examines how climate change is framed by policymakers and how different framing have impacted the development of adaptation policies in the case of Switzerland. We take an inductive approach and use computer-aided textual analysis of policy material produced during the elaboration of the Swiss climate policy to produce maps of policy actors’ perception of climate change. Our research findings show that adaptation plays a trivial role in the decision makers’ framing of climate change. Decision-makers do not express any conceptual links between adaptation, the Swiss economy or the country’s energy supply. Adaptation is mainly considered as an issue for developing countries and the local impacts of climate change are downplayed. Furthermore, right-wing parties tend to consider adaptation as a secondary issue and are more likely to object to the formulation or implementation of public measures than their counterparts on the left. We conclude by discussing the theoretical implications of these findings.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Authors: Johann Dupuis, Peter Knoepfel
Institution: University of Lausanne
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1493907792