Chapter 13: National and Sub-national Policies and Institutions
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13.3 Structural Factors that Shape Climate Governance
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13.3.3 Ideas, Values and Belief Systems
Differences in dominant individual preferences may also be important. The factors that shape individual ideas, values and beliefs about climate governance include trust in politicians, the state and other people in general (Drews and van den Bergh 2016; Harring et al. 2019; Huber et al. 2020), fairness beliefs, variation in political orientation (left leaning more concerned), and class (medium evidence, medium agreement) (Schmitz et al. 2018; Inglehart and Norris 2017).
Levels of climate change concern on the individual level have increased in most countries (Shwom et al. 2015), and vary with gender (females are more concerned), and place of residence (urban residents are more concerned) (Shwom et al. 2015; McCright et al. 2016a; Ziegler 2017). The higher educated in developing countries tend to be more concerned (Lee et al. 2015) while individuals working in polluting industries tend to oppose forceful climate governance (Bechtel et al. 2019; Mildenberger 2020).
Table 13.3 | Relationships between adaptation and mitigation measures
| Policy/action |
Interrelation explained |
Reference |
| Mitigation that contributes to adaptation |
| Green Infrastructure; policies to support the design and implementation of a hybrid network of natural, semi-natural, and engineered features within, around, and beyond urban areas at all scales, to provide multiple ecosystem services and benefits. – Carbon storage and sequestration. – Reduced energy consumption. |
Adaptation benefits: flood management, heat stress reduction individually, or jointly, coastal protection, water scarcity management, groundwater resources, ecosystem resilience improvement, air quality, water supply, flood control, water quality improvement, groundwater recharge. Social co-benefits: aesthetic, recreation, environmental education, improved human health/well-being, social cohesion, and poverty reduction. Policy examples: national building code guidelines, flood safety standards, local land-use plans, local building codes, integrated water management for flood control. |
Atchison (2019); Conger and Chang (2019); Schoonees et al. (2019); De la Sota et al. (2019); Choi et al. (2021); Zwierzchowska et al. (2019) |
| REDD+ Strategies; an incentive for developing countries to increase carbon sinks, to protect their forest resources and coastal wetlands. Mostly are national strategies led by the state with contribution of international donors. – Contributes to carbon storage and sequestration. – Renewable energy. |
REDD+ strategies aim to generate social benefits such as poverty reduction, and ecological services such as water supply, water quality enhancement, conserves soil and water by reducing erosion. For example, indigenous communities of Socio Bosque in Ecuador have sustained livelihoods and maintaining ties to land, place, space, and cosmovision. While in Cameroon, upfront contextual inequities with respect to technical capabilities, power, gender, level of education, and wealth have been barriers to individuals’ likelihood of participating in and benefiting from the projects. |
McBurney (2021); Tegegne et al. (2021); Anderson et al. (2016); Busch et al. (2011); Bushley (2014); Dickson and Kapos (2012); Froese and Schilling (2019); Gebara et al. (2014); Pham et al. (2014); Jodoin (2017) |
| Household energy-efficiency and renewable energy measures; energy policies may improve socioeconomic development. – Energy use reduction. |
Energy Efficiency (EE) emerges as a feasible and sustainable solution in Latin America, to minimise energy consumption, increase competitiveness levels and reduce carbon footprint. Achieving high levels of EE in the building sector requires new policies and strengthening their legal framework. Microenterprise development contributes to poverty reductions as renewable energy stimulate local and national economies. |
Chan et al. (2017); Silvero et al. (2019); Zabaloy et al. (2019); Alves et al. (2020); Nyiwul (2019); Dal Maso et al. (2020) |
13.8 Integrating Adaptation, Mitigation and Sustainable Development
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13.8.4 Integrated Governance Including Equity and Sustainable Development
Climate policy integration carries implications for the pursuit of the SDGs, given that it is nearly impossible to achieve the desired socioeconomic gains if fundamental environmental issues, such as climate change, are not addressed (Gomez-Echeverri 2018). Research on climate resilient development pathways (Roy et al. 2018), for instance, argues for long-term policy planning that combines the governance of national climate and SD goals, builds institutional capacity across all sectors, jurisdictions, and actors, and enhances participation and transparency (robust evidence, high agreement) (Chapter 4 and 17).
In the Global South, climate change policies are often established in the context of sustainable development and of other pressing local priorities (e.g., air pollution, health, and food security). National climate policy in these countries tends to give prominence to adaptation based on country vulnerability, climatic risk, gender based differences in exposur to that risk, and the importance of local/ traditional and indigenous knowledge (Beg et al. 2002; Duguma et al. 2014b). Despite the evidence that integrated mitigation and adaptation policies can be effective and efficient (Klein et al. 2005) and can potentially reduce trade-offs, there is still limited evidence of how such integrated policies would specifically contribute to progress on the SDGs (robust evidence, high agreement) (Kongsager et al.2016; Di Gregorio et al. 2017; Antwi-Agyei et al. 2018; De Coninck et al. 2018; Campagnolo and Davide 2019).
