Subsystem Structures, Shifting Mandates and Policy Capacity: Assessing Canada’s Ability to Adapt to Climate Change

Abstract

Adapting to climate change requires governments to design and implement policies capable of dealing with long-term problems. This poses significant policy design and implementation challenges since policies must also be multilevel and multi-sectoral in nature given the cross-sectoral and international character of climate change issues. Responsive policy-making on climate change issues thus requires both sophisticated policy analysis as well as an institutional structure which allows problems to be dealt with in a way which corresponds with changing organizational mandates, resources and network structures. Designing such policies requires matching policy analytical resources in relevant government departments and agencies with new and expanded mandates, a process which is not always necessarily successful. This introductory article presents the framework utilized in a collaborative study of climate change adaptation capacity in four Canadian policy sectors (agriculture, finance, infrastructure, and transportation) and one US case (the energy sector in Colorado). The study framework and subsequent analysis examine policy from a three-level perspective including (1) the macro nature of the subsystem involved, (2) the meso level of the organization or leadagency in charge of the issue and (3) the micro level nature of policy work being undertaken in each sector.