Climate change has highlighted the urgent need for the reform of governance approaches and institutions. Disaster risk reduction of climate change impacts requires unparalleled international cooperation and new forms of local, national, regional and international governance. This chapter suggests how institutional architecture should be organised to fill ‘governance gaps’ in order to serve local needs and improve climate change cooperation. Climate change adaptation will require institutions to use local resources, a global vision, and cross-cutting agendas. Recommendations include greater cooperation with city governments and the establishment of national inter-ministerial/inter-agency processes to review adaptation policies and decisions.
In today’s world, markets, money, knowledge and communications are global. Yet global governance structures remain based on approaches devised by the victors of World War Two. We are now on the cusp of a broader understanding of the importance of global public policy. The need to respond to climate change requires a reconfiguration of the inter-connection of local, national, regional and international levels of government.
In the developing world, local resources and capacity are often insufficient for effective adaptation, yet constraints on climate change cooperation hamper broader responses. Constraints include:
- The inability of national governments and international organisations to aid and cooperate with city governments
- Lack of coherence and coordination among government ministries and agencies, despite the fact that adaptation encompasses all elements of national government activity
- The under-use of regional organisations in adaptation (towards which countries usually feel a sense of ownership and loyalty)
- Inefficient, unwieldy international bureaucracies that are often under-funded, slow to create concrete action and ineffective in producing effective cooperation and coordination between multilateral organisations
- Political considerations that divert the focus of bilateral development organisations away from the needs of the most vulnerable.
International organisations must become more adept at reaching the local level directly and through national governments and regional organisations. They must focus on building and strengthening governance leadership at all levels and lead the process of developing a set of principles for climate change adaptation:
- Governments should design an international system to deal with crises such as climate change that is stakeholder-driven and efficient in moving goods from global to local levels.
- National governments and international organisations must increase their cooperation with cities. National inter-ministerial/interagency processes should be established to review climate adaptation policies and decisions.
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should ensure that climate change information reaches users in a timely way, particularly in low-income countries.
- Local institutions should be responsible for identifying and supporting the poor and vulnerable. Partnerships between local formal and informal, public and private actors should be created to address climate change adaptation.
- Monitoring and evaluation and adaptation implementation reports should be transparent and involve civil society organisations.
- Regional organisations can help regions adapt to climate change, especially by building and sharing experience and capacity.
