Climate adaptation law: a European perspective

Editorial: Governing the EU's climate and energy transition through the 2030 Framework

BackgroundIn response to climate change-induced increases in heat periods, the WHO recommends the implementation of heat health action plans (HHAPs). In Germany, HHAPs are implemented neither comprehensively nor nationwide. Several recommendations have identified the public health service (PHS) at municipal and federal state levels as a key actor regarding to heat and health. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the role of the PHS in implementing HHAPs at municipal and federal state levels in Germany.MethodsWe conducted a policy document analysis to assess the legal basis for the work of the PHS in the 16 federal states in Germany. Furthermore, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 experts from within and outside the PHS to explore their perceptions of the PHS in the implementation of HHAPs. The interviews were analysed using reflective thematic analysis.ResultsThe policy document analysis revealed that heat is not mentioned in any of the federal states’ regulatory frameworks for the PHS, while tasks related to environment and health are addressed, but tend to remain vague. The interviews confirmed that there is currently no clearly defined role for the PHS in implementing HHAPs in Germany and that the actual role primarily depends on the local setting. Main barriers and facilitators could be assigned to three levels (individual, organizational and political), and two overarching contextual factors (awareness of the need for adaptation and existence of other public health emergencies) influenced the implementation of HHAPs across all levels. At the individual level, motivation, knowledge and competencies, and previous experience were possible barriers or enablers. At the organizational level, administrative structures, financial and human resources, leadership and networks were barriers or facilitators, while at the political level they included legislation and political decisions.ConclusionsThe PHS could and should be a relevant actor for implementing measures addressing health and climate change locally, in particular because of its focus on vulnerable populations. However, our findings suggest that the legal basis in the federal states of Germany is insufficient. Tailored approaches are needed to overcome barriers such as rigid, non-agile administrative structures and competing priorities, while taking advantage of facilitators such as awareness of relevant actors.

Chapter 5: Law and regulation

To be effective, climate change adaptation needs to be mainstreamed across multiple sectors and greater policy coherence is essential. Using the cases of Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, this paper investigates the extent of coherence in national policies across the water and agriculture sectors and to climate change adaptation goals outlined in national development plans. A two-pronged qualitative approach is applied using Qualitative Document Analysis of relevant policies and plans, combined with expert interviews from non-government actors in each country. Findings show that sector policies have differing degrees of coherence on climate change adaptation, currently being strongest in Zambia and weakest in Tanzania. We also identify that sectoral policies remain more coherent in addressing immediate-term disaster management issues of floods and droughts rather than longer-term strategies for climate adaptation. Coherence between sector and climate policies and strategies is strongest when the latter has been more recently developed. However to date, this has largely been achieved by repackaging of existing sectoral policy statements into climate policies drafted by external consultants to meet international reporting needs and not by the establishment of new connections between national sectoral planning processes. For more effective mainstreaming of climate change adaptation, governments need to actively embrace longer-term cross-sectoral planning through cross-Ministerial structures, such as initiated through Zambia’s Interim Climate Change Secretariat, to foster greater policy coherence and integrated adaptation planning.

This Article focuses on environmental taxes, specifically aviation taxes, and the challenges and limitations EU law imposes on individual EU Member States when they attempt to enforce both national and international environmental policy goals. Both the former Irish and the recently implemented Swedish aviation tax are used as comparative examples when chartering and discussing what (legal) obstacles are posed by EU law and, subsequently, the options available to individual Member States when attempting to design and implement environmental taxes. Further, common political obstacles are addressed in the Swedish and Irish case studies to further enhance the understanding of why and how aviation taxes are designed the way they generally are. A holistic approach, resulting in the inclusion of not only tax law and environmental law elements but also EU free movement law and EU state aid law in parallel legal systems (at domestic level and EU level) is applied to provide a more coherent and transparent outlineof the studied matter. The Article affords, through a tax technical study combined with environmental and economic theories, a conceptual framework on how an aviation tax may be designed to fulfil environmental goals and generate tax revenues while still complying with EU law. The Article comprises differing methods in calculating CO2 emission offsetting. Calculating factual taxation of individual flightsoffers the reader further understanding of the polluter-pays principle and present (in)efficiency of aviation taxes at Member State level. Despite the Article only covering aviation taxes applied within the EU, these discussions are of great relevance to scholars outside of the EU considering the increasing interest in climate law and the potential of environmental taxes when pursuing climate goals at both national and international levels. Additionally, policy discussions will only become more relevant over time due to ongoing environmental discussions and the implementation and enforcement of the UN’s sustainability goals.

To assess, from a systems perspective, how climate vulnerability and socio-economic and political differences at the municipal and state levels explain food insecurity in Mexico. Using a cross-sectional design with official secondary data, we estimated three-level multinomial hierarchical linear models. The study setting is Mexico's states and municipalities in 2014. Heads of households in a representative sample of the general population. At the municipal level, vulnerability to climate disasters and a poverty index were significant predictors of food insecurity after adjusting for household-level variables. At the state level, gross domestic product and the number of nutrition programmes helped explain different levels of food insecurity but change in political party did not. Predictors varied in strength and significance according to the level of food insecurity. Findings evidence that, beyond food assistance programmes and household characteristics, multiple variables operating at different levels - like climate vulnerability and poverty - contribute to explain the degree of food insecurity. Food security governance is a well-suited multisectoral approach to address the complex challenge of hunger and access to a nutritious diet.

In June 2020, the Danish Parliament adopted a new Climate Act that included legally binding measures. Two months earlier, in March 2020, the European Commission presented a proposal for a European Climate Law Regulation based upon the content of the Paris Agreement. Subsequently, the EU adopted the EU Climate Law Regulation in April 2021. This article presents a comparative legal analysis of the Danish 2020 Climate Act and the 2021 European Climate Law Regulation and investigates these new types of climate acts that have risen as results of the Paris Agreement and international climate law in general. Moreover, the article presents and discusses some examples of the implementation results in Denmark and the latest EU climate strategies. It is concluded that both the Danish and the EU Climate Acts can be considered umbrella legislation presenting the binding climate objectives and legal bases for future climate law however without presenting substantive legal provisions that implement the climate objectives. climate law, public law, Danish law, EU law, comparative law, international climate law

The role of the chief scientist (CS), a key administrative position in various Israeli ministries, is to fund policy‐oriented research and support evidence‐based decision‐making. Has the CS's role promoted or constrained incorporation of scientific advice regarding climate change adaptation into governmental policy? Have administrative traditions affected the adaptation planning process in Israel? Analysis of documents and 26 in‐depth interviews with key stakeholders sheds light on the ongoing climate change adaptation policy formulation process. Our study reveals that the CS of the Ministry of Environmental Protection functions as a bridge at different interfaces and can be characterized as a boundary worker between institutions. The inherent independence of this position facilitates the CS's ability to initiate, foster, and prioritize complex issues such as adaptation. Our findings further suggest that the perception that Israel has already adapted, or will easily adapt, has negatively affected the adaptation process. 科学建议和行政传统：首席科学家在气候变化适应工作中的作用 首席科学家是以色列各部门的一个关键行政职务, 其具体作用是为政策性研究提供资金, 并支持循证决策。对于有关气候变化适应的科学建议, 首席科学家的作用是促进还是限制了其被纳入到政府政策中？行政传统是否影响了以色列的气候适应规划进程？通过文件分析及与关键利益相关者的26次深入访谈, 笔者揭示了正在进行的适应气候变化政策的制定过程。研究表明, 环保部门的首席科学家在不同的层面上起着桥梁作用, 在不同机构的分界线上工作以彼此连接。该职位的内在独立性能促进首席科学家在发起问题、培养和优先考虑包括适应气候等复杂问题的能力。研究进一步表明, 以色列已经适应了或即将轻易适应某些观点, 而这已经对气候适应过程产生了负面影响。 Asesoria cientifica y tradiciones administrativas: el papel que juegan los cientificos principales en la adaptacion al cambio climatico El papel que juegan los cientificos principales, un puesto administrativo clave en varios ministerios israelies, esta especificamente designado para el financiamiento de investigacion orientada hacia la politica y el apoyo a decisiones basadas en evidencia. ?El papel que juegan los cientificos principales ha promovido o limitado la incorporacion de asesoria cientifica en lo que concierne a la adaptacion al cambio climatico dentro de las politicas del gobierno? ?Las tradiciones administrativas han afectado el proceso de planeacion para la adaptacion en Israel? El analisis de los documentos en 26 entrevistas exhaustivas con partes afectadas clave ilustra el proceso de formulacion de las politicas de adaptacion al cambio climatico actual. Nuestro estudio revela que el Cientifico Principal del Ministerio de Proteccion Ambiental funciona como un puente para diferentes interfaces y puede ser caracterizado como un trabajador limitrofe entre las instituciones. La independencia inherente de esta posicion facilita la habilidad del cientifico principal para iniciar, fomentar y darle prioridad a complejos problemas como la adaptacion. Nuestros hallazgos sugieren que la percepcion de Israel ya se ha adaptado, o se adaptara facilmente, y ha afectado negativamente el proceso de adaptacion.

This Themed Section aims to increase understanding of how the idea of climate change, and the policies and actions that spring from it, travel beyond their origins in natural sciences to meet different political arenas in the developing world. It takes a discursive approach whereby climate change is not just a set of physical processes but also a series of messages, narratives and policy prescriptions. The articles are mostly case study-based and focus on sub-Saharan Africa and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). They are organised around three interlinked themes. The first theme concerns the processes of rapid technicalisation and professionalisation of the climate change ‘industry’, which have sustantially narrowed the boundaries of what can be viewed as a legitimate social response to the problem of global warming. The second theme deals with the ideological effects of the climate change industry, which is ‘depoliticisation’, in this case the deflection of attention away from underlying political conditions of vulnerability and exploitation towards the nature of the physical hazard itself. The third theme concerns the institutional effects of an insufficiently socialised idea of climate change, which is the maintenance of existing relations of power or their reconfiguration in favour of the already powerful. Overall, the articles suggest that greater scrutiny of the discursive and political dimensions of mitigation and adaptation activities is required. In particular, greater attention should be directed towards the policy consequences that governments and donors construct as a result of their framing and rendition of climate change issues.

Urban planning policy must do more to integrate climate change adaptation and mitigation actions

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the centre of the global policy response to climate change. The Paris Agreement, a legally binding treaty under the UNFCCC, has located climate change adaptation as a critical component of the global response to climate change. The Paris Agreement also establishes an enhanced transparency framework to track progress towards Parties climate change commitments. However, the UNFCCC has consistently maintained a marked difference in provisions for reporting climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation. Consequently, reporting on climate change adaptation lags far behind in detail when compared to that for reporting on climate change mitigation. Using literature review as the main method of analysis, this paper aims to understand the underlying factors that have resulted in the lack of specificity of reporting provisions of the UNFCCC for climate change adaptation and the consequences of non-mandatory provisions for reporting on climate change adaptation on national and global adaptation practice. The paper then highlights the benefits of regular reporting of climate change adaptation to the UNFCCC. It makes important contribution to the growing literature on global environmental governance, especially on national reporting of adaptation information, an under-studied and a poorly understood field.

The aim of the study is to investigate to what extent trends in life expectancy are influenced by political variables and socioeconomic characteristics that play a role at the regional level of the federal states in Germany. Data on life expectancy in males and females at birth are analyzed from 1986 to 1998 for 12 federal states in Eastern and Western Germany. These states are classified into five types of political government since 1980: (1) long-term Christian democratic, (2) long-term social democratic, (3) change from Christian to social democratic, (4) change from communist to social democratic, and (5) change from communist to Christian democratic. The study showed three main results. First, life expectancy has been directly influenced by the major political forces that determined policies in East and West Germany. Second, life expectancy was higher in federal states with predominantly Christian democratic governments than in those with predominantly social democratic governments. Third, life expectancy was strongly related to the economic power of the federal states. Because federal states characterized by a more prosperous economic situation were those with a predominantly Christian democratic government, while federal states with a less prosperous situation were mostly governed by social democrats, it is difficult to disentangle the effects of economic and political factors on life expectancy. Nevertheless, this study underlines the importance of politics and policies on such robust and more general health indicators as mean life expectancy at birth.

Climate adaptation strengthens and builds the resilience of health systems to future climate-related shocks. Adaptation strategies and policies are necessary tools for governments to address the long-term impacts of climate change and enable the health system to respond to current impacts such as extreme weather events. Since 2011 South Africa has national climate change policies and adaptation strategies, yet there is uncertainty about: how these policies and plans are executed; the extent to which health policies include adaptation; and the extent of policy coherence across sectors and governance levels. A policy document analysis was conducted to examine how South African climate change, development and health policy documents reflect the health adaptation response across national and Western Cape levels and to assess the extent of coherence across key health and environment sector policy documents, including elements to respond to health-related climate risks, that can support implementation. Our findings show that overall there is incoherence in South African climate adaptation within health policy documents. Although health adaptation measures are somewhat coherent in national level policies, there is limited coherence within Western Cape provincial level documents and limited discussion on climate adaptation, especially for health. Policies reflect formal decisions and should guide decision-makers and resourcing, and sectoral policies should move beyond mere acknowledgement of adaptation responses to a tailored plan of actions that are institutionalized and location and sector specific. Activities beyond documents also impact the coherence and implementation of climate adaptation for health in South Africa. Clear climate risk-specific documents for the health sector would provide a stronger plan to support the implementation of health adaptation and contribute to building health system's resilience.

The Paris Agreement charts a new course for measuring, reporting, verification (MRV) of State obligations with the intensification of the emphasis on the criterion of transparency. This is, in part, responsive to modern debates in regards to environmental law generally and climate law in particular. Transparency is crucial to the success or failure of climate mitigation and adaption regimes because climate governance is intimately connected to the ideals of deliberative democracy, public participation, and the rule of law. The Paris Agreement thus presents a ground-breaking and important point in time for both developed and developing States. Aligned with this requirement is the desire to increase the amount and flow of ‘climate finance’ from developed to developing states. The associated need for transparency in funding flows has been raised in part through the accusations of misused or inadequate funds, ‘tied’ funding and double counting. Though there are new informational requirements placed on states in the Paris Agreement, they also present considerable practical challenges. The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the principle of transparency in climate finance and to chart the direction of the associated informational requirements in light of the measures agreed at Paris.

Population health monitoring and reporting provides regular and up-to-date information on health outcomes and its determinants. The outputs of population health monitoring aim to inform policymakers and other stakeholders to develop fact-based decisions. Population health monitoring is located at the national, but also federal state and county level. This paper describes the legal basis for population health monitoring in the federal states' public health acts as well as current challenges and possibilities for further development from afederal state and county perspective on population health monitoring.Alegal basis for population health monitoring on the federal state and county level exists for almost all federal states in Germany. The level of detail of these laws varies in terms of responsibility, periodicity of population health monitoring and reporting, content, and designated use. Population health monitoring needs to respond to challenges in the areas of population health monitoring resources, data sources, (intersectoral) reporting, and impact. Practical examples illustrate how the challenges can be handled and further development can take place.Based on its solid legal basis, being aroutine task, and its close link to the living conditions of the population, population health monitoring on the federal state and county level has thepossibility for cocreating public health at the grassroots level and to be apioneer for health equity.