Sub-national government efforts to activate and motivate local climate change adaptation: Nova Scotia, Canada

Abstract

The impacts of climate change due to more frequent and intense storms, fires, and floods are felt most acutely at the community scale, and local adaptation policy and planning is critically important. However, local practitioners face many barriers that can undermine their capacity to adopt and sustain adaptation initiatives to reduce exposure and vulnerability and strengthen resilience to climate risks. Existing scholarship suggests that national governments play an important role in providing leadership and resources to support local adaptation policy development. However, less research attention has been devoted to investigating sub-national, regional government initiatives to support local adaptation policy and planning in federal states, despite their financial resources and constitutional responsibility to oversee municipalities. This article analyzes how one sub-national government, the provincial government of Nova Scotia (Canada), activated and motivated local adaptation policy and planning through a combination of policy instruments and municipally focused capacity-building initiatives. In addition to describing the structure and dynamics of the provincial mandate for municipal adaptation planning in Nova Scotia, we provide case study evidence to draw insights about the enabling conditions for the successful implementation of climate change adaptation governance initiatives of this kind.