Editing IPCC:AR6/SROCC/Chapter-3 (section)

==== 3.5.3.1 Local to National Governance ====

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Responses to climate change at and across local, regional and national levels occur directly and indirectly through a broad range of governance activities, such as land and sea use planning and regulations, economic development strategies, tax incentives for use of alternative energy technologies, permitting processes, resource management and national security. Increasingly, climate change is considered in environmental assessments and proposals for resource planning of polar regions.

A comprehensive literature review of 157 discrete cases of Arctic adaptation initiatives by Ford et al. (2014b) found that adaptation is primarily local and motivated by reducing risks and their related vulnerabilities ( ''high confidence'' ). Several elements for successful climate change adaptation planning at the local level have previously been identified: formal analytical models need to be relevant to the concerns and needs of stakeholders, experts should be made sensitive to community perspectives, information should be packaged and communicated in ways that are accessible to non-experts and processes of engagement that foster creative problem solving be used. Furthermore, success of local government involvement in adaptation planning has been closely linked to transnational municipal networks that foster social learning and in which local governments assume a role as key players (Sheppard et al., 2011; Fünfgeld, 2015) ( ''medium confidence'' ). While transnational networks can be a catalyst for action and promoting innovation, there remain outstanding challenges in measuring the effectiveness of these networks (Fünfgeld, 2015).

Adaptation through formal institutions by Indigenous people is enabled through self-government, land claims and co-management institutions (Baird et al., 2016; Huet et al., 2017). However, organisational capacity is often a limiting factor in involvement (AHDR, 2014; Ford et al., 2014b; Forbes et al., 2015) ( ''high confidence'' ). Interactions across scales are also dependent on the extent to which various stakeholders are perceived as legitimate in their perceptions and recommendations, an issue related to the use of local knowledge and indigenous knowledge in governance (Cross-Chapter Box 4 in Chapter 1) (AHDR, 2014; Ford et al., 2014b; Forbes et al., 2015) ( ''high confidence'' ).

At a more regional level, Alaska’s ‘Climate Action for Alaska’ was reconstituted in 2017 and is now actively linking local concerns with state-level policies and funding, as well as setting targets for future reductions in the state’s carbon emission. The role of cross-scale boundary organisations in climate change adaptation planning, and how central government initiatives can ultimately translate into ‘hybrid’ forms of adaptation at the local level that allow for actions that are sensitive to local communities has proven important in Norway (Dannevig and Aall, 2015).

At the national level, Norway, Sweden and Finland have engaged in the European Climate Adaptation Platform (Climate-ADAPT), a partnership that aims to support Europe in adapting to climate change by helping users to access and share data and information on expected climate change in Europe, current and future vulnerability of regions and sectors, national and transnational adaptation strategies and actions, adaptation case studies and potential adaptation options, and tools that support adaptation planning. Level of participation by country and the extent to which national level efforts are linked with regional and local adaptation varies. The Canadian government’s actions on climate change have been among the most extensive of the Arctic nations, including funding of ArcticNet, a Network of Centres of Excellence, and consideration of climate change by The Northern Contaminants and Nutrition North Canada programs .

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