Climate governance is the diplomacy, mechanisms and response measures "aimed at steering social systems towards preventing, mitigating or adapting to the risks posed by climate change".

Climate governance has been identified as multi-scale, multi-actor and deeply embedded in social and physical infrastructure.

Climate change governance remains very new and there is no rulebook or agreed ‘best practice’ manual on governance that can serve to transfer lessons from one country to another.

GOVERNANCE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate Change Policy Brief #1 A publication of the Ministry of Sustainable Development,

Energy, Science and Technology, 2015

1. Background/Context In Saint Lucia, increasingly severe existing and new hazards

posed by the phenomenon of climate change and climate

variability have been manifested in the increases in the

frequency and intensity of extreme weather and climate events.

These events, such as heavy and prolonged rainfall, strong

winds, drought and high sea temperatures and levels, have

claimed lives, caused severe damage to infrastructure and other

economic assets and caused adverse effects on livelihoods.

Important primary effects of

climate change, detailed in

scientific reports, include sea

level rise, extreme weather

events, and changing

temperature and precipitation

patterns. As a result of these

effects, ecosystem stresses and biodiversity loss will increase. There is also the

potential to disrupt human settlement patterns, infrastructure, and agriculture; to

generate significant and growing economic costs; and to directly threaten livelihoods

and wellbeing of human populations (Stern, 2007)1. The causes of climate change are global and its impacts are being felt world-wide,

albeit differentially. Also given the economic and other ties between nations, a

collective response has been deemed essential.

The first major milestone in

the history of climate

governance2 was in the facet

of diplomacy, with the

United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate

Change (UNFCCC) being

opened for signing in Rio de

Janeiro, Brazil, 1992.

1 Stern, N. (2007), The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review, Cambridge University Press. 2 Jagers, S.C.; Stripple, J. (2003). "Climate Governance beyond the State". Global Governance 9 (3): 385–400.

Climate change

governance

requires action on

two fronts:

adaptation and

mitigation.

Adaptation

implies the

adjustment of

society to a

changing climate;

that is, any action

that is taken to

minimize, reduce or

avoid the adverse

impacts of climate

change

Mitigation

requires shifts in

current behavior to

end practices

driving further

climate change.

Neither can be

avoided.

Adaptation is

required because

climate change is

already underway,

and further

warming from

existing emissions

is inevitable.

Mitigation is

required because

there is no way to

adapt out of

climate change.

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Coordinating international efforts at climate governance has however, proved to be a major challenge,

with much inertia experienced in the sphere of diplomacy.

An alternative narrative which recognizes the importance of public and private networks at multiple-

scales is now being propagated for regional and national mechanisms and response measures. It

recognizes that institutions encourage communication between different levels of power (local, national,

regional, and international) to govern resources, whilst also engaging a broad set of stakeholders e.g. non-

governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector and the public.4 Therefore, the approach takes a

predominantly ‘bottom-up’ strategy, focusing on community-based actions. In terms of climate change,

this provides an alternative to the ‘top-down’ and more far-removed and remote processes of the Inter-

Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) proceedings and the UNFCCC negotiations. Indeed,

many people who are not connected directly to these top down processes, perceive them as having little

effect in addressing urgent climate issues on-the-ground.

However, Johan Rockström, father of the concept of planetary boundaries, argues that there is no

evidence, under any of the Rio Conventions, that a bottom-up approach will be enough, and that “bottom-

up innovation” must be coupled with “top-down regulation” that establishes a cap on total global

emissions. Hence, there is a need to find an optimal balance between the “bottom-up” and the “top-

down” approaches.

2. Issue Saint Lucia’s Second National Communication (SNC), released in 2011, indicates vulnerabilities to

climate hazards across all sectors. It identifies key challenges in enhancing resilience to climate change in

Saint Lucia, as well as in managing the overall disaster risks, to ensure economic stability, social

protection and minimize environmental degradation. These include, inter alia, preserving human life and

sustaining livelihoods; protecting climate-sensitive human settlements, ecosystems and critical

infrastructure; promoting sustainable land use planning and reforestation; ensuring security in terms of

adequacy and quality of water and food supply; collecting and

analyzing climate change-related data and information in a

comprehensive and sustainable fashion in order to be able to

respond to the challenges posed by climate change and climate

variability, and ensuring the existence and adequacy of

governance and management systems to meet these challenges.

Saint Lucia’s Climate Change Adaptation Policy (CCAP) of 2001

was revised and adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of the

Government of Saint Lucia in February 2015.

However, there remains limited understanding of climate risks

and inadequate technical capacity to integrate climate risk

management into planning processes. There is also little evidence of significant efforts aimed at capacity

development at the national, sectoral, or community levels to create effective governance structures to

implement the CCAP and furthermore to support climate resilience building. In addition, beyond

initiatives specifically targeted at tackling climate change itself, the impact of external factors on the level

of global climate action cannot be underestimated. For example, with global oil prices at a record low at

the start of the year 2015, the impacts on efforts at renewable energy deployment can only be speculated

3 | Page

upon. While renewable electricity generation does not generally compete with oil, negative impacts could

be felt by the electric vehicles industry and hybrid power generation in some developing countries.3

Climate change governance further poses difficult challenges for present-day political/administrative

systems.4 The existing governance structures and processes, despite their well-known mechanisms, are

not ideally suited to managing climate change, having emerged through complex and long-term processes

of institutional evolution to address the problems of the development agenda. The focus of the attention

of the Government of Saint Lucia (GOSL), as in most Small Island Developing States (SIDS) over the

past six decades, has been accelerating ‘development’ – a multi-dimensional process that involves

economic, social and political advance. Also, despite the more recent advent of modern institutions of

environmental governance, these remain weak (e.g. in terms of enforcement of legal mandates, financial

support, manpower), compared to more established areas of government competence. The emergence of

climate change now requires a further phase of innovation and adjustment to governance practices.

Also of concern is that, beset by issues such as scientific uncertainty, the complexity of reaching global

agreements, and long time frames, there is the tendency for government to delay action and to adopt less

ambitious climate programmes. This is even more so when there are other pressing problems (such as

economic dislocation, reform of economic and social protection systems, and development imperatives)

that require urgent attention.

3. Approaches

The dynamics of global

efforts to tackle climate

change are now generally

considered through a top-

down, versus bottom-up

dichotomy. In general,

the former consists of

(legally) binding rules,

and even absolute caps, on States' emissions under an international or regional regime – i.e. the consensus

principle applied under the UNFCCC. The latter refers to voluntary actions by State or non-State actors,

or among a smaller group of States (bi-lateral or multi-lateral approaches). The Conference of the

Parties/Meeting of the Parties5 (COP/MOP) is the main annual event of the UNFCCC, and, to a certain

extent, of the entire climate policy community. National Communications (Natcoms) and Biennial Update

reports (BURs) are primary mechanisms for countries to report at the global level. There is also a call for

the development of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions

(NAMAs) and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)”.

There are several schools of thought that put forward that it is within a society’s potential to adapt to the

gradual climate changes we are experiencing currently, and those felt in the future, unless socioeconomic

or political forces are unsupportive or antagonistic.6 Therefore, utilizing adaptive governance is perhaps

3 Luomi, Mari (2015). Policy Update #18: Global Climate Governance in 2014 in Retrospect. Thematic Expert for Climate Change and Energy Policy, IISD Reporting Services (Finland). From Each According to His Capability... 4 This statement and several others in this policy brief are articulated from information derived in the Document prepared by James Meadowcroft

(2009) as a background paper to the World Bank’s World Development Report 2010: Development in a Changing Climate-Climate Change

Governance. 5 Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. Not all States Party to the Convention are Party to the Kyoto Protocol 6 Young, Kenneth. R; Lipton, Jennifer. K (2006). "Adaptive governance and climate change in the tropical highlands of Western South America". Climate Change 78 (1): 63–102

Actions required at global level to contribute to “substantial and

sustained emission reductions” to stay within the 2°C limit, which

will entail a near-term peak and reductions in GHG emissions of 40-

70% relative to 2010 by 2050. Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC)

4 | Page

an ideal solution as its experimental approach allows newly created institutions to “experiment with

different solutions and learn from them in order to adapt and transform".7 The role of these institutions is

to then formulate policies to enhance the resilience in complex climate and social systems, and therefore

strengthen the system’s ability to adapt and remain stable in the face of climate changes in the future.8

However, given the limited financial and technical capacities of SIDS and other poor countries, even

when there is openness to adaptive governance, this may prove to be a challenge in the context of climate

change, since resources have to be constantly diverted towards addressing the immediate adverse impacts.

The organizational option - for developing administrative leadership capacity for climate change - that is

most pursued by countries has been to lodge responsibility for climate change with the environmental

department, with foreign affairs playing an important role in relation to international negotiations. However, problems with this approach are related to the cross-cutting nature of climate policy, the

significant economic implications, the challenges of adaptation and mitigation, and the often, seemingly

low priority given to environmental ministries. Thus, the consideration of climate change governance as

an ‘environmental’ issue may not be simple, given that its implications extend across government. Indeed,

managing climate change implies the need to execute initiatives in many key areas, including, but not

limited to: energy, industry, spatial planning, urban affairs, transport, international relations, and others.

Meadowcroft (2009) submits four central dimensions to climate change governance, namely:

(i) Building strategic capacity: leadership, knowledge and the provision of expert advice,

defining the national interest and establishing a strategic policy framework, re-configuring

institutions and programmes in terms of networks and expertise to address climate change

issues

(ii) Integrating climate change into development decision making: climate change policies must be formulated in relation to economic and social realities and goals and integrated into

the development trajectories of a) key socio‐economic sectors and (b) key sub-national levels; (iii) Societal mobilization: finding approaches to activate dynamic forces in society

(communities, businesses, families, individuals) to engage with the climate challenge.

(iv) Learning how to do climate governance: given limited experience, it is important to adopt a

‘learning’ oriented approach to developing institutions and approaches suited to the

management of climate change

issues.

At the national level, the Ministry with

responsibility for Sustainable Development has

been charged with the responsibility of

collaboratively undertaking a growing climate

change agenda and accompanying expectations,

including: policy dialogue, negotiations, project

implementation, monitoring and reporting,

public education and awareness, among others.

However, governance/institutional structures are

inadequate in terms of limited material and

financial capacity.

7 Evans, J. and Karvonen, A. "Living laboratories for sustainability: exploring the politics and epistemology of urban adaptation." In Cities and

Low Carbon Transitions, ed. Bulkeley, H., Castán Broto, V., Hodson, M., Marvin, S, London: Routledge, 2011. 8 Tompkins, Emma. L; Adger, Neil (2004). "Does adaptive governance of natural resources enhance resilience to climate change?” Ecology and Society 9

CLIMATE CHANGE INSTITUTIONAL

LEADERSHIP IN SAINT LUCIA:

particular responsibility for climate change policy;

e lead agency on climate

change – MSDEST - SDED;

‐governmental coordinating

committee -NCCC (established since 1998) and

chaired by the lead agency) to bring together officials

from across government and non-government entities

to work on climate change;

5 | Page

Nevertheless, the current national framework for climate change demonstrates the extent of required

collaboration across the range of stakeholders: public and private sectors, scientific and technical

institutions, community based organizations, academia, international cooperation agencies, NGOs,

partners, among others. The various existing legal instruments under the jurisdiction of several of these

entities combine to provide the basis of a legislative framework for climate change. Also noteworthy are

the efforts to incorporate climate change considerations into Physical Planning legislation, as well as the

NEP/NEMs9 and the draft Environmental Management Bill. Saint Lucia’s Climate Change Adaptation

Policy (CCAP) of 2001 was revised and adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Government of Saint

Lucia in February 2015. Climate change-relevant approaches are also reflected in various other efforts

such as: the geothermal energy effort, the promotion of rain water harvesting (RWH), CFL and LED10

light bulbs, the tax incentive for solar water heaters and

hybrid vehicles, among others.

Saint Lucia has also developed a strategic policy

framework with respect to providing the enabling

environment and practical measures for building climate

resilience within economic development objectives. The

Strategic Programme for Climate Resilience (SPCR)

and Investment Plan (2011)11 speaks to tangible

interventions, capacity-building, education and awareness,

research and knowledge management, efficient resource

allocation and the mainstreaming of climate risk

management into development policies at the national and

local scale. Saint Lucia’s SPCR is being implemented

under the under strap-line: “One person, one household,

one enterprise, one community, one sector at a time.”

There are also various supporting

climate change-related initiatives

underway, aimed at capacity

building for climate change

governance at the national, sectoral

and community levels. Key areas in

this regard include training and

skills enhancement, equipment and

instrumentation, community

frameworks, policy development.

4. Conclusions and Implications

The onset of climate change poses a major threat to Saint Lucia’s development and will impact on every

major economic sector and social group. The extent of Saint Lucia’s vulnerability to climate change and

9 National Environmental Policy/National Environmental Management Strategy 10 Compact fluorescent light (CFL); Light emitting diode (LED) 11 The SPCR has 5 parts. Part 1: Background and Rationale. Part2: Proposed Investment Programme Components for funding (note that this has

expanded substantially and financing revised due to scaling up via the Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project (DVRP) to supplement the

funding available under the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR)). Part 3: Project/Programme Preparation Grant Request (was part of preparation and is no longer valid) Part 4: Appendix. Part 5: Bibliography”

The SPCR is Saint Lucia’s “blueprint” for national

investment in climate change resilience-building, well into

the future. Further to the projects under the funding

envelope for this project, Part 4 (Appendix 8-pages 21-53

and Appendix 13-pages 82-105) of the 5-part volume

outlines the broad project / programme areas/concepts for

all sectors, themes and areas, in pursuit of enhanced

climate resilience. It therefore serves as an overarching

guide, which all organizations and the general citizenry

can refer to, in developing and implementing projects/

proposals/programmes for building climate resilience.

CCAP Framework comprises 3

interconnected processes:

Adaptation Facilitation, which entails

creating the appropriate policy,

legislative and institutional environment;

Adaptation Financing, which involves

putting in place measures to ensure

adequate and predictable financial flows;

and

Adaptation Implementation, which

entails taking concrete actions on the

ground to prepare for or respond to the

impacts of climate change.

6 | Page

variability is also largely influenced by several non-climatic drivers that are largely socio-economic and

ecological in nature.12 Thus, climate change, and the responses to climate change will impact different

groups in different ways. This will change the patterns of risk and opportunity to which the country,

economic sectors, businesses, communities and individuals will be exposed and will layer new

dimensions on already established sustainable development concerns. Every Saint Lucian, in every walk

of life, will be affected by climate change and, consequently, must play a part in the national response to

it. Government, the private sector and civil society will need to work in partnership to this end.

Since climate change requires a response stretching over decades, a clear strategic policy framework is

needed. This can provide the stability required to encourage long-term investments (in energy and

infrastructure, for example) that are necessary to control emissions and to adapt to changing climates. It

will also ground policy initiatives in distinctive national conditions, including important political and

cultural values. In other words, governance for climate change has increasingly become a necessity.

Saint Lucia, through an extensive participatory process, has sought to develop a strategic policy

framework in the formulation of the SPCR (2011), and this ought not to be viewed as producing a single

showpiece climate change document but, rather, as ensuring that the core strategic orientation is clear to

the government itself, as well as to all key stakeholders and citizenry. Establishing good governance for

managing the impacts of climate change now requires the establishment or reconfiguring of specific

institutions and societal groups, policies and

legislation, and the integration of climate change

into the normal practice of government.

Furthermore, there is a need to improve policy

coherence (minimize duplication and contradictory

policies), deal with tradeoffs, enhance strategic

capacity and the efficiency and effectiveness of

allocation of resources, and reduce the sensitivity

of development activities to current and future

climate-related impacts.13 The governance rubric

for climate change must also be well embedded within the inter-linked areas of environmental, watershed

and biodiversity management, as well as disaster risk reduction (DRR).

Notably, international agreements at the UNFCCC level are essential to facilitating cooperation (e.g.

potentially lowering costs, addressing inequities and managing collective action problems). Good climate

change governance at the national level, with regard to national perceptions, initiatives and measures, is

also equally important to underpin any advance at the global level. Thus, as argued by Rockström6 “while

nation States will continue to exist as the fundamental units for accounting and development, global

governance, at an unprecedented scale is required for solving key global environmental challenges,

including climate change.”

12 They include inter alia: global economic stresses, such as changing trade regimes, financial downturn, rising commodity and fuel prices, as

well as stresses at the local level, including, demographics of people, poverty and unemployment. These are further exacerbated by the negative

impacts of climate change. 13Urwin, K and A. Jordan, “Does public policy support or undermine climate change adaptation? Exploring policy interplay across different scales of governance”, 18(1) Global Environmental Change-Human and Policy Dimensions (2008), 180.

Redefinition of national interest A redefinition of national interests in light of climate change risks is thus required. This necessarily entails an effort to understand the potential implications of climate change, and the costs and benefits of possible mitigation and adaptation responses. On the basis of such effort, governments should be able to formulate an overall perspective on the significance of human -induced climate change on long term national welfare.

7 | Page

5. Recommendations Particular measures that can be taken to improve climate governance include:

i. Institutional framework: reconfiguring/realignment of regional and national institutional forms for

capable climate change governance that suit national circumstances, with regard to already pressing

governance issues and with more emphasis on governance for adaptation, while considering more

sector specific or project-based mitigation activities:

a. establish sector and community-based adaptation fora with key stakeholders to explore

impacts and responses: for example collaboration with the insurance industry to identify

vulnerabilities and take remedial action;

b. create an array of independent assessment organizations that can support Research and

Systematic Observation (RSO), based outside the purview of the executive branch of

government. This will ensure that they can offer independent advice that can be trusted by the

public and that will not be compromised by political interference;

c. establish more sustainable mechanism for preparation of Natcoms, BURs, etc., as opposed to

disbanding and recruiting requisite capacity each time;

d. establish appropriate governance structures to support climate finance. (see Finance Brief)

ii. Climate change institutional leadership: through the introduction of regular reporting mechanisms

at the national level (e.g. to Parliament) on climate change objectives, policy and performance:

a. formalize the National Climate Change Committee (NCCC) as a sub-committee of the

National Environmental Commission (NEC) or successor body, with the necessary legislative

mandate14 to facilitate and coordinate the implementation of adaptation measures across

sectors and agencies and at all levels of society;

b. continue to strengthen the NCCC through broader participation of the private sector,

community groups, vulnerable groups and other appropriate stakeholders;

c. identify and designate a climate change focal point within every Ministry, with an alternate.

d. identify and increase opportunities for high-level discourse on climate change and policy

directions for global negotiations for climate change, World Trade Organisation (WTO), etc.:

e.g. Committee of Permanent Secretaries, Policy Committee, Budget Technical Committee

and Parliament - create a Cabinet committee on climate change, or a Cabinet committee

which links climate change with a critical area (e.g. ‘energy and climate change’), led by

designated climate change Minister.

iii. Policy and regulatory framework: provide approaches for adaptation and mitigation:

a. promote ‘no-regrets’ policies which can encourage mitigation at little or negative economic

cost. e.g. energy efficiency policy, with appropriate regulatory standards; abolition of

subsidies for fossil fuel usage (although politically challenging) can bring substantial

economic and environmental benefits;

b. undertake regular revision and reform of policy instruments – including NEP/NEMS, EMB

and regulations, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations, Building Codes15, to

address emerging issues of climate change impacts coherently in national, sector and local

planning processes (for example land use planning);

14 Such as the Environmental Management Bill 15 Revisions currently underway

8 | Page

c. promote economic and fiscal instruments - sector incentive regimes (See CCAP16)

iv. Systems for information management - the preparation of periodic sector, national and regional

reports on adaptation and anticipated long range adaptation costs:

a. expand existing information systems platforms such as GeoNode17 into more effective data

and information systems for management and sharing of climate change knowledge for

national decision making;

b. create and strengthen appropriate

mechanisms to ensure political

involvement in international processes,

when and where needed;

c. effect and strengthen (as lead on

Sustainable Development (including

climate change in CARICOM) a robust and

functioning mechanism to assist

CARICOM in its role in regularly updating

all Head and relevant Ministers on agreed

issues and messages related to climate

change.

v. Public Education and Awareness a. design, implement and appropriately resource18, sustained education and training and

awareness strategies to ensure stakeholder ownership of and participation in climate

resilience building at all levels of society.

vi. Other measures to support adaptation a. align ministerial programmes to relevant SPCR programmes and projects modalities; i.e.

adaptation facilitation, adaptation implementation and adaptation financing;

b. devise mechanisms to utilize the process for the elaboration of national communications

(Natcoms) to mainstream climate change into sector policies;

c. develop collaboratively, and promote implementation of, ministry/sector-specific toolkits or

guides that enable agencies to review and/or (re)formulate climate-smart policies,

projects/programmes, operational plans;

d. create an enabling framework for research based on an national overarching research policy

and strategy, that encourages research funding entities (see Research and Systematic

Observation Brief) to incorporate adaptation issues into the research agenda.

16 For example, for the construction sector, incentives that encourage persons to bring in low flush toilets, low flow shower heads and automatic

shut off taps, impact resistant windows, install rainwater tanks; tax credits for solar water heaters, installation of solar cooling systems, etc. 17 See: http://sling.gosl.gov.lc; an open access platform for access, management and publication of geospatial data for informed decision making. 18 Tapping into the current public awareness implementation plan for the DVRP

Saint Lucia hosted CARICOM Regional Workshop

of Ministers & Negotiators, 2015

For More Information on Climate Change Contact:

Ministry of Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology

The Sustainable Development and Environment Division

Caribbean Cinemas Complex

Choc, Castries

Tel. 451-8746

Email: sdestaff@sde.gov.lc