Unraveling the challenges of Japanese local climate change adaptation centers: A discussion and analysis

Abstract

Under the Climate Change Adaptation Act, Local Climate Change Adaptation Centers (LCCACs) enhance climate change adaptation at the local level in Japan by gathering, analyzing, and disseminating essential information on climate change and its impacts on their communities. Although no literature has yet investigated the obstacles encountered by LCCACs, it is plausible that LCCACs may have encountered several difficulties, such as a scarcity of resources, in its operations. We aimed to examine these challenges through a mixed-method research design. We first conducted a structured interview survey with 25 LCCACs in Japan to assess their adaptive capacity. We found that LCCACs can be classified into three groups based on their capacity. Then a questionnaire survey was implemented to determine the challenges limiting their success. For example, all three groups agreed that a lack of human and financial resources and insufficient cooperation with business sector are significant challenges. On the other hand, the results showed that the LCCACs with low adaptive capacity showed specific difficulties, such as the lack of experience and expertise in climate change adaptation. These results revealed that the LCCACs in Japan showed diverse levels of adaptive capacity, and they have different challenges derived from their various experience and resources. Our findings indicated that support from national and local governments and relevant institutions should be tailored to meet the specific needs and challenges of each LCCACs. Our analytical framework can be extended to other countries in order to comprehend the challenges that local actions of adaptation to climate change encompass, as the indicators and difficulties targeted in this study possess a high degree of versatility.