Overcoming barriers to climate adaptation

The document identifies eight categories of barriers to climate adaptation: conflicting timescales/interests, leadership, resources, science, governance/institutional constraints, lack of awareness/communication, attitudes/values/motivations, and the adaptation process itself. It provides a self-evaluation survey for local authorities to identify their specific challenges and offers a curated list of resources and critical discussion questions to facilitate stakeholder engagement and problem-solving. Findings from CASCADE workshops indicate that spatial planners in the Baltic Sea Region perceive financial resource shortages as a primary barrier, while emergency management practitioners highlight climate skepticism as a significant challenge.

• Climate adaptation is described as a cyclical process consisting of nine main phases that cover the understanding, planning, and management of adaptation, where the first six phases are integrated into the climate risk assessment process.
• Barriers to adaptation are grouped into eight categories: conflicting timescales and conflicts of interest, leadership, resources, science, governance and institutional constraints, lack of awareness and communication, attitudes, values, and motivations, and the adaptation process.
• In the Baltic Sea Region, spatial planners identified the lack of financial resources as their most significant challenge, which is linked to shortages in staff time, expertise, and technical skills.
• Emergency management practitioners in the Baltic Sea Region identified climate skepticism as the most challenging barrier, while they viewed the lack of awareness of climate change as the least challenging.
• A lack of financial resources for local governments is a widespread issue in the Baltic Sea Region; only 5 out of 11 countries provide dedicated climate change adaptation funding for local governments, with another three providing partial funding.
• Governance barriers often stem from 'silo-thinking' and institutional fragmentation, which hinder the cross-disciplinary and multi-level cooperation required for successful adaptation.
• Scientific barriers include not only a lack of data but also challenges in understanding and using available information, as well as difficulties in managing the inherent uncertainties of long-term climate projections.

APA

Tuhkanen, H., Vilbiks, L., & Piirsalu, E. (2020). Overcoming barriers to climate adaptation. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/overcoming-barriers-to-climate-adaptation-final.pdf

Chicago

Tuhkanen, Heidi, Laura Vilbiks, and Evelin Piirsalu. Overcoming barriers to climate adaptation. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2020. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/overcoming-barriers-to-climate-adaptation-final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Tuhkanen |first1=Heidi |last2=Vilbiks |first2=Laura |last3=Piirsalu |first3=Evelin |title=Overcoming barriers to climate adaptation |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=December 2020 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/overcoming-barriers-to-climate-adaptation-final.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{tuhkanen2020overcoming, author = {Tuhkanen, Heidi and Vilbiks, Laura and Piirsalu, Evelin}, title = {{Overcoming barriers to climate adaptation}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, month = dec, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/overcoming-barriers-to-climate-adaptation-final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }