As the impacts of climate change become increasingly evident across the globe, there has never been a more pertinent time to understand the barriers preventing adaptation implementation in practice. According to the authors, while there is an abundance of scholarship exploring this dynamic from the local and local-national perspective, there is a paucity of work focused on the local-territorial perspective.
Thus their study focuses on three communities in Yukon, Canada, a northern territory where wildfire, flood and permafrost thaw are an on-going challenge for local decision makers. They showcase how strong dependencies and power dynamics between actors and institutions across local and the territorial government have led to weakened local innovation, delayed support, and unclear government roles, all of which have stymied momentum on climate adaptation in practice. The authors suggest ways these communities, and others around the globe, can overcome persistent barriers that constrain adaptation implementation, including how to harness climate adaptation enablers to facilitate the process.
The journal article can be accessed for free here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104097
Full citation
Birchall, SJ., Bonnett, N., Rose, D., Gilchrist, E. (2025). Factors contributing to climate adaptation lag in practice: Insights from local and territorial government interactions. Environmental Science & Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104097.