Climate Change In Germany Research Articles

The sustainably managed forest heats up: discursive struggles over forest management and climate change in Germany

In this article, we introduce an empirical case study of the German forest policy subsystem in order to understand how the concept of sustainable forest management has been discursively constructed, challenged, and changed over time. As a theoretical basis, we use an idea-based coalition approach, drawing on both the Advocacy Coalition Framework and Hajer's Argumentative Discourse Analysis. We show that rival coalitions that share a certain idea of forest management have dominated German forest policy for decades by employing different rhetorical and institutional strategies in order to incorporate their ideas into public policy institutions. Analyzing how the issue of climate change is discursively ‘digested’ by the actor coalitions, we find that climate change has been incorporated into the political argumentation of both coalitions in a manner consistent with their existing main policy ideas. Moreover, the membership of the coalitions has remained stable. These findings allow for conclusions regarding both our theoretical approaches and the policy subsystem's ability to adapt forests to cope with climate change.

Potential impacts of climate change in Germany—Identifying regional priorities for adaptation activities in spatial planning

Spatial planning is considered to be one of the main instruments available to govern adaptation to climate change and climate change impacts in spatial contexts. To meet this challenge spatial planning authorities require information concerning climate change impacts on a regional and local scale level. This paper presents an assessment framework for exploring the impacts of climate change in the context of spatial planning. The framework employs indicators for exposure to climate stimuli and sensitivity to climate change induced impacts. A particular focus was put on producing a comparable classification method with regard to the set of indicators. The application of the framework allows a comprehensive evaluation and comparison of the results for the impacts addressed. The framework was applied at a regional level for the whole of Germany. An indicator based model was developed assessing 11 potential impacts with relevance for the German spatial planning system. Relevant indicators of sensitivity and exposure were compared for a common assessment and spatial analysis of climate change induced potential impacts related to NUTS 3 districts. The impact analysis is applied for three different IPCC greenhouse gas emission scenarios (A2, B1, A1B) and three future periods (2011–2040, 2041–2070, 2071–2100). The assessment provides new information on the spatial distribution of different potential impacts of climate changes in Germany. Regions with cumulative impacts of climate change are identified as hot spot areas which need urgent adaptation activities by spatial planning.

Local Government and the Governing of Climate Change in Germany and the UK

This paper argues that, in order to address the challenges of climate change, attention needs to be focused not only at the international level but also on how climate protection policy is taking shape locally. It provides a comparative analysis of local climate change policy in Germany and the UK. By moving the focus from an analysis of the formal competencies of local government to the multiple modes of governing through which climate protection is taking place, the similarities between the two countries are brought into view. In both cases, actions are concentrated in the energy sphere and municipalities are increasingly deploying self-governing and enabling approaches to undertaken emissions reductions. The paper argues that the impacts of EU policies, financial crises and the political challenges of implementing climate change policies are changing the capacity for local intervention, with potentially significant consequences for medium- and long-term goals for climate protection.