Conceptualising climate change governance

The projected impacts of climate change, not only flooding and the urban heat island, but also gradual changes, such as biodiversity loss or a reduction in the groundwater level, can become societal problems. The complex inter-relationships between stakeholders and societal coordination can be included under the term “governance”. The attributes of climate change governance will be outlined in this chapter. Attention is focused on societal scopes for designing and regulating climate change. Firstly, the specific demands for climate change governance are presented. Subsequently, the term governance is introduced, together with its various applications, and the different approaches and concepts regarding climate change governance are discussed. The conceptualisation of climate change governance is based on this spectrum. As this paper discusses, climate change governance is not an entirely new concept, but one that has many parallels with existing models for governance in other settings. Nevertheless, a re-evaluation of its role in this context still appears reasonable since climate change-related measures are characterised by specific features requiring their own regulatory framework. This includes the cooperation of different institutions and actors in addition to hierarchical forms of regulation, and describes the development of self-organising structures. Climate change governance can therefore be described as a broad range of options of coordination concerning climate change adaptation and mitigation.