Towards a deeper understanding of barriers to national climate change adaptation policy: A systematic review

Abstract

As adaptation have received increasing attention, national adaptation policies and plans have been substantially developed. Despite the significant roles of national policy for adaptation, barriers to national adaptation policy have been overlooked and our understanding of the barriers is not sufficient as we expect. Also, the barriers are pointed out a reason of the current adaptation gaps. To address this situation, we use a systematic literature review to examine the barriers to adaptation policy specifically at the national level, as well as their origin, impact, and solutions to overcome them, considering the importance of national-level adaptation for the overall adaptation. Scrutinising a sample of eighteen articles, we identify eight categories of barriers to national adaptation policy. Lack of resources, fragmentation, and lack of awareness and communication are the most commonly identified barriers to national adaptation policy. We also find that the literature does not provide sufficient detail on the underlying causes of the barriers, the relationships between them and their consequences. The literature also gives limited attention to solutions for overcoming barriers, and the suggestions made are too general and normative to be helpful in practice. But the existing literature helps to interrogate and visualise the interlinkages between the origins, barriers and impacts, as well as between different barriers. This highlights that barriers should be addressed simultaneously and provides preliminary insights into a deeper understanding of the barriers. We conclude by outlining the key knowledge gaps and future research priorities to help support national adaptation policy processes.