Abstract
Growing attention is being directed towards understanding the ways in which climate change policy is shaped by the actions and interests of local governments. This study explores connections between local government’s efforts to uphold and maintain the public trust and their considerations about climate change adaptation associated with water management. Document analysis and 24 interviews with local public officials are used to shed light on these considerations in three small municipalities in central Pennsylvania: Chambersburg, Carlisle, and Gettysburg. The analysis provides indications that a paradox of public trust leads to public officials pursuing actions and considerations that are consistent with climate change adaptation, but not recognizing that they are doing so. The implications of this governing mindset for climate change outreach and policy are explored. Suggestions for countering the logic of inaction expressed by public officials that justified a lack of adaptation are identified, and the potential for state and federal interventions to stimulate climate adaptation in contexts like these local governments is explored.
Highlights
Drawing on a combination of document analysis and interviews with officials in three municipalities in central Pennsylvania, this study provides indications that decisionmakers in these local governments’ considerations of climate change adaptation are shaped by their desire to preserve the trust of residents who are often skeptical about efforts to address climate change and its impacts
Through document analysis and interviews with city officials, this study found evidence that concerns about managing public trust shape considerations about climate change adaptation policy related to water management in three local governments in central Pennsylvania
Chambersburg, Carlisle, and Gettysburg were all pursuing actions and making considerations about water management that were consistent with climate change adaptation
Summary
As the impact of climate change increasingly affects communities across the world, local governments need to continue to prepare for these challenges through adaptation. Local governments are frequently at the forefront of climate change adaptation and planning due to the lack of international and national success, their knowledge of citizens’ everyday needs, and the ability to interweave climate change adaptation into other policy goals [1,2]. Local government’s decisions to engage with climate change adaptation are often enabled by the simultaneous alignment of multiple factors [3]; public support and local leadership have been highlighted as critical factors driving local climate policy adoption [4,5]. Local governments pursue climate change policies because these efforts help them fulfill their own internal goals or reduce perceived threats [2,6]
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