Multidimensional governance of climate change adaptation in policy making and practice (GOAPPLY)

The Alpine Space is severely affected by climate change. Adaptation to already unavoidable climatic changes is needed to prevent unmanageable impacts and to safeguard climate-resilient and balanced territorial development. National climate adaptation strategies are in place in some Alpine countries, but implementation is inhibited by multiple obstacles in steering adaptation policies across sectors, levels & actors. Regional adaptation plans are just emerging, adaptation has hardly entered local agendas, and policy mainstreaming is limited on all levels. Governance has a key role in the transition from adaptation strategies to implementation in practice, but capacities for multilevel & cross-sector governance of adaptation processes are lacking in all countries. Adequate governance designs, models & formats, incl. effective cooperation pathways & coordination arrangements, are mostly still missing or not operational. The project thus tackles joint key challenges of adaptation governance: vertical implementation across territorial levels; horizontal mainstreaming into sector policies; and more active involvement of local, regional & non-governmental actors.

OBJECTIVES

• Improve understanding of adaptation governance systems and critical enhancement needs in Alpine countries
• Support effective horizontal integration of climate change adaptation into sector policies
• Support vertical integration of adaptation and stimulate adaptation management structures on sub-national levels by involving and empowering regional and local stakeholders
• Sustain, deepen and leverage transnational cooperation, knowledge transfer and mutual learning