Halvor Dannevig

Implementing adaptation to climate change at the local level

Adaptation to climate change has to various degrees been added to the political agenda in all industrialised countries. In most of these countries, adaptation measures are yet to be implemented in legislation and are, therefore, in practice voluntary undertakings. At the local level of the government, this means that adaptation has to compete with other non-mandatory issues. This raises the question as to what degree adaptation can and will be implemented. This paper examines how the implementation of climate adaptation measures has proceeded in eight Norwegian municipalities. These municipalities were among the first movers on adaptation to climate change in Norway. In order to measure the degree of implementation, a set of indicators has been developed and the eight case municipalities have been analysed according to these indicators. We found that seven of eight municipalities have implemented or have specific plans to implement adaptation measures. These findings show that municipalities are able to implement adaptation policies that are not initiated at the central level, but are contingent upon a number of factors: the efforts of individuals within the municipal organisation, municipal size, and the use of external expertise.

Driving the agenda for climate change adaptation in Norwegian municipalities

The absence of clear signals from the Norwegian state concerning climate change adaptation provides an opportunity to investigate why some municipalities have addressed adaptation to climate change while others have not. Although difficulties associated with implementing adaptation to climate change are well documented, less is known about those individuals who take the lead. On the basis of in-depth interviews and interaction with eight Norwegian municipalities that have begun working with climate adaptation, we examine how climate adaptation has been added to the local agenda. We find that adaptation planning has progressed more in those municipalities where officials are engaged and actively seeking external expertise and support. We conclude that, without a clearer national adaptation policy and greater resource allocation and legislation, adaptation to climate change within Norwegian municipalities is unlikely to progress further.

Adaptation in Fisheries and Municipalities: Three Communities in Northern Norway

In this chapter we focus on how changing societal and climatic conditions have consequences for current and future vulnerability and adaptation in three municipalities in Northern Norway: Hammerfest and Lebesby, in Finnmark County, and Vestvagoy in the Lofoten Islands, Nordland County. Through local consultations and discussions, fisheries and municipal planning were identified as having particular relevance in the case communities. Climate change is not perceived to be a major challenge locally, nevertheless, when climate projections are considered alongside locally defined and relevant socio-economic and climatic concerns that are particular to local contexts, multiple and interrelated factors emerge that are likely to shape future vulnerability. Focussing on coastal fisheries and municipal planning as two major arenas for change, we find that adaptation takes place along a number of dimensions and at several societal levels. Adaptive strategies occur in response to changing socio-economic conditions, to variable weather and environmental conditions, or to a combination of both. There are three interlinked factors that our empirical findings show are currently of concern for coastal fisheries: changes in bio-physical conditions (ocean temperature and fish distribution and behaviour); fisheries management and regulations (vessel size, species, quotas) and societal conditions (outmigration, market factors and transfer of knowledge). The interlinkages between these changes, and community responses to them, have first and foremost been captured and understood through local involvement in our research.

Understanding the need for adaptation in a natural resource dependent community in Northern Norway: issue salience, knowledge and values

For society to effectively manage climate change impacts, the need to adapt must be recognized. At the same time there is a disconnect between knowledge and action on climate change. The salience of adaptation to climate change may be a precondition for action, but this issue has so far been neglected in the adaptation literature. This indicates a missing link between perception, values and world-views, on one side, and policy formation on the other. The article analyses how actors in three occupational groups in a natural resource dependent community in northern Norway perceive and respond to changes in weather and resource conditions, as well as projections for future climate. The results indicate that the need to adapt is perceived differently, if at all, amongst different actors. By drawing on concepts from governance literatures and cultural theory of risks (CTR), the paper seeks to explain this divergence in perceptions and responses amongst different actors, which can help policy-makers understand when and why autonomous actors are willing to adapt. We find that adaptation to climate change cannot readily be expected among actors who fit the individualist category of CTR, who do not directly utilize scientific knowledge when in their work.

Future changes in the supply of goods and services from natural ecosystems : prospects for the European north

Humans depend on services provided by ecosystems, and how services are affected by climate change is increasingly studied. Few studies, however, address changes likely to affect services from seminatural ecosystems. We analyzed ecosystem goods and services in natural and seminatural systems, specifically how they are expected to change as a result of projected climate change during the 21st century. We selected terrestrial and freshwater systems in northernmost Europe, where climate is anticipated to change more than the global average, and identified likely changes in ecosystem services and their societal consequences. We did this by assembling experts from ecology, social science, and cultural geography in workshops, and we also performed a literature review. Results show that most ecosystem services are affected by multiple factors, often acting in opposite directions. Out of 14 services considered, 8 are expected to increase or remain relatively unchanged in supply, and 6 are expected to decrease. Although we do not predict collapse or disappearance of any of the investigated services, the effects of climate change in conjunction with potential economical and societal changes may exceed the adaptive capacity of societies. This may result in societal reorganization and changes in ways that ecosystems are used. Significant uncertainties and knowledge gaps in the forecast make specific conclusions about societal responses to safeguard human well-being questionable. Adapting to changes in ecosystem services will therefore require consideration of uncertainties and complexities in both social and ecological responses. The scenarios presented here provide a framework for future studies exploring such issues.

Adaptive capacity to changes in terrestrial ecosystem services amongst primary small-scale resource users in northern Norway and Sweden

ABSTRACT This paper presents results from case studies in which we investigate the interrelations between changes in ecosystem services (ESs) and adaptive capacity among small-scale users of multi-use forest or outfields resources in northern Sweden and Norway. The study presents a framework that utilizes scenarios for changes in ESs under climate change in combination with qualitative interviews with outfield resource users in order to assess their adaptive capacity to the projected changes. The study illustrates that ESs may change significantly under climate change, and in particular affect winter snow and ice conditions, for instance increasing the duration of the growing season but with consequences for pasture quality. We find that given structural constraints, the key factors that influence the selected resource users’ adaptive capacity at an individual level include motivation and entrepreneurial inclinations, which are related to the lifestyle choice of making a livelihood based on small-scale and multi-use occupations.

Climate change acknowledgement and responses of summer (glacier) ski visitors in Norway

ABSTRACT The mutual interaction of climate change and the highly weather-dependent ski tourism business is drawing increasing attention from the academic, commercial and political arenas. Changes in the cryosphere are becoming major determinants of the sustainability of ski areas. Therefore, there is a great deal of literature entailing impact and adaptation studies regarding ski areas, resorts, and destinations; however, research on the demand side of the issue is relatively limited. In this paper, the relationship between climate change and a niche segment of ski tourism, summer skiing, is discussed with regard to the awareness, perceptions, and mitigation and substitution behaviours of visitors to the summer downhill ski centres in Norway – an underresearched country, despite its recognition as the cradle of skiing. For this purpose, a comprehensive survey was administered to a sample of 224 subjects. The results revealed high climate change awareness but limited climate friendliness, and a strong emphasis on the immediate climate impacts on summer skiing that create a tendency towards ski activity substitution within Norway. Individual profiles also played a significant role in the anticipated mitigation and substitution behaviours. The implications of the results involving demand attitude and behaviour are further discussed with regard to the suppliers.

The Nussir Case and the Battle for Legitimacy: Scientific Assessments, Defining Power and Political Contestation

This chapter investigates the process of opening the Nussir copper mine in Kvalsund, Finnmark County, Northern Norway, and the efforts that have been made to legitimize it locally. Particular attention is paid to the way both scientific and lay knowledge influence political decisions in relation to the recently approved mine, with a tailings depository in a nearby fjord. The aim is to explain why conflicts persist over the project’s knowledge base, despite formal requirements for a comprehensive and participatory assessment process having been followed. Through interviews, document analysis and a review of media coverage, the chapter concludes that local acceptance of the mine is represented by the municipal council approval of the developers’ assessment program (AP), although this acceptance is not shared by all, as controversy around the environmental impacts of the project persists. After the municipality approved the company’s zoning plan (that followed the AP), the decision-making process shifted to the national level, rendering the local dialogue less relevant. Further, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process did not contribute to local legitimacy, as there was little local involvement in its production, while the content of the EIA is virtually inaccessible to local residents due to its sheer size and technical jargon. An EIA process with more local participation and incorporating local knowledge would not have avoided the conflict over the monetary and non-monetary valuation of the Repparfjord area, but it could have resulted in a knowledge base that was less controversial, more legitimate and therefore provided a more solid basis for future operations. However, this would have required local politicians to admit that the decision to open the mine was primarily a matter of politics, and not a technical matter which can be resolved to the satisfaction of all solely through the production of scientific knowledge.

Author response to the commentary by A. L. Bercht on “Understanding the need for adaptation in a natural resource dependent community in Northern Norway: issue salience, values and worldviews”

It is not an everyday occurrence that our articles are subject to a published commentary, and we appreciate the input and are grateful for the opportunity to respond. In her commentary, Bercht criticizes the Cultural Theory of Risk (CTR) framework applied to our findings from Lofoten Islands, Norway, and used in our analysis and conclusions about the apparent lack of salience towards climate change impacts among fishers in the Lofoten Islands (Dannevig and Hovelsrud 2016). By employing CTR, we suggest that an individualist worldview typically held by fishers can explain the low-issue salience of adaptation to climate change. The typology associated with fishers is compared and contrasted with that attributed to farmers and municipal officials. Our main interest is to understand why the fishers, farmers, and municipal officials, within the same community, have varying views on the need for climate adaptation. Bercht has discovered that the fishers indeed are worried about climate change, some of them are even Bhijacked by fear .̂ Based on the interview statements, Bercht discovers that fishers are suffering from cognitive dissonance and Bhard wired^ neurological emotions that prevent them from seeing climate change as a salient issue that require adaptation. The anxiety and fear among fishers exposed by Bercht’s research are not evident in our empirical findings, which we agree may be attributed to different disciplinary focus, questions asked, the design of the research, and the theoretical approach. Bercht set out to understand Arctic change and likely designed her interviews to that effect. In our case, the CTR typologies or world view categories emerged from years of field work in Lofoten and other areas in Northern Norway. In other words, we did not set out to apply the CTR framework, but rather use it as a tool to explain clear differences, empirically observed, between livelihood groups who at the same Climatic Change (2017) 144:573–575 DOI 10.1007/s10584-017-2063-4