Abstract
Cities are vulnerable to climate change. To deal with climate change, city governments and private actors such as businesses and citizens need to adapt to its effects, such as sea level rise, storm surges, intense rainfall and heatwaves. However, adaptation planning and action is often hampered when the relevant public
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and private actors have only vague and ambiguous responsibilities. Some exploration on the issue of public and private responsibilities has been undertaken in the literature, but a systematic analysis has been lacking. This dissertation systematically explores, analyses and evaluates public and private responsibilities for adaptation to climate change in urban areas. It does so through a cross-issue and cross-city comparative case study design, by using a conceptual framework based on multiple theoretical perspectives and multiple qualitative methods. In total, 20 governance arrangements in 15 different cities in Europe and North America were studied for three urban adaptation measures: green roofs for storm-water retention, adaptive building for water safety and various measures for heat stress prevention. The research reveals that existing governance arrangements for local urban climate adaptation are characterised by a large extent of public responsibility; by a moderate private responsibility, often limited to the implementation of measures; and by a (very) limited extent of shared public-private responsibility. The pertinence of this public responsibility is explained by two dominant considerations, i.e. effectiveness in terms of securing sufficient adaptation action, and rule of law in terms of the duty of care of local authorities for a healthy and liveable environment. At the same time, decisions on responsibility divisions have been taken quite selectively and routinely. In other words, they do not appear to have been taken very deliberately, based on a holistic set of considerations and on certain specific challenges to the governance of adaptation. Furthermore, the research reveals that the large extent of public responsibility currently contributes positively to the effectiveness, legitimacy and fairness of existing governance arrangements. Nevertheless, in view of the acceleration of climate change in the near future, public responsibility will not suffice. Interactive arrangements with shared public-private responsibilities and supported by contractual agreements may offer promising alternative arrangements, since they do take good account of the specific challenges to the governance of adaptation. The scientific merit of this dissertation is that it has proved to offer a conceptual framework for a systematic and more contextual analysis and evaluation of governance arrangements in terms of public and private responsibilities. The major contribution of this dissertation to the adaptation policy practice is that it provides methods for policymakers that enable deliberate and deliberative decisions on allocations of responsibilities and on the selection of policy instruments, thus avoiding the trap of path dependencies. A clear and deliberate allocation of responsibilities is important for getting adaptation off the ground and for making cities future climate-proof, given the acceleration of climate change. In the end I argue that it is a clear and deliberate allocation of responsibilities that constitutes truly responsible climate change adaptation.
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