Description
There is deficiency in knowledge on how to strengthen adaptive capacity of local governments to climate change and what are the factors that influence this. Project will study the factors that may influence climate change adaptation capacity in Poland and Norway. Knowledge of how to best organize to develop and realize adaptive capacity in order to become resilient to future climate changes will be developed. Through a replication and expansion of the study in Norway on Polish cities we will be able to do a comparison of the factors that enable local communities to adapt to future climate changes. Not only Polish and Research Norwegian research institutions may benefit from mutual learning but also Polish and Norwegian local government practitioners, who will have an opportunity to meet and exchange their experiences during the course of the project. The knowledge and experience from different research institutions will be shared and integrated through study visits and discussions during all research process. Increased visibility of Norwegian and Polish academic institutions will be achieved through presentations of conference papers and publications.
Summary of project results
The need of the project may be justified by the fact that the topic of local policies regarding adaptation to climate change has been so far highly under-researched in Poland. By the same token the topic has not be treated with sufficient care by majority of local government practitioners. Not only published results, but also the interactions with local politicians and officials during conducted research have contributed to larger visibility and increase awareness of the studied topics. The project has also produced new knowledge on the actually implemented local policies. The POLCITCLIM project have had an academic character, therefore the most important outcomes are related to academic publications. So far three articles have been published (or accepted for publication) in leading Polish academic journals (14 points on the most recent list produced by the Ministry – MniSW) and two articles are in the process of review in international journals with Impact Factor. But spill-overs of the project related to increased awareness are also worth to be highlighted. Those spill-over effects include: (i) interactions with practitioners, first of all during practitioners conference, but also on several other occasions, (ii) invited presentations on various conferences targeted at practitioners and societal activists, (iii) lectures for academics and students on universities abroad. Since POLCITCLIM has been an academic project, its main achievements have been of academic nature, such as increased visibility during international conferences or publications in academic journals. But another, more practical achievement has been related to the increased awareness of local dimension of climate change issues among local governments politicians and professionals.
Summary of bilateral results
The fact that the POLCITCLIM project has been implemented as cooperation of two academic institutions – one from Poland and one from Norway – has strengthened the quantity and quality of results in numerous ways: - It allowed exchange of data collected in both countries, through the extensive surveys of local governments as well as through case studies based on qualitative methods - It allowed scholars from both countries to better understand issues related to policies on climate change as well as better understanding of local government systems in partner countries - It allowed to prepare joint publications for international academic journals and joint conference presentations The process of POLCITCLIM project implementation has strengthened bilateral relations between University and Warsaw and NIBR in many ways. First, it gave opportunity for more formal and informal interactions between scholars from both institutions which were developed during joint work. Second it allowed to discuss and to develop plans for further cooperation in the future.