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"This book compares how the social consequences of climate change are similarly unevenly distributed within China and the USA, despite different political systems. Focusing on the cases of Atlanta, USA, and Jinhua, China, Julia Teebken explores a set of path-dependent factors (lock-ins), which hamper the pursuit of climate adaptation by local governments to adequately address the root causes of vulnerability. Lock-ins help to explain why adaptation efforts in both locations are incremental and commonly focus on greening the environment. In both these political systems, vulnerability appears as a core component along with the reconstitution of a class-based society. This manifests in the way knowledge and political institutions operate. For this reason, Teebken challenges the argument that China's environmental authoritarian structures are better equipped in dealing with matters related to climate change. She also interrogates the proposition that certain aspects of the liberal democratic tradition of the United States are better suited in dealing with social justice issues in the context of adaptation. Overall, the book's findings contradict the widespread assumption that developed countries necessarily have higher adaptive capacity than developing or emerging economies. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate justice and vulnerability, climate adaptation and environmental policy and governance"--

Abstract
Climate change adaptation planning and implementation have proliferated over the past years. However, we still lack an understanding of how society adapts itself outside of policy sectors and as part of what some refer to as "autonomous adaptation." The way people respond to risk without deliberate interventions of public actors is not well understood. Given the increasing occurrence of climatic changes that affect our daily lives, the topic is regaining attention with an emphasis on behavioral adaptation. This angle, however, does little to enhance our understanding of how society adapts collectively and which practices and routines groups choose to adopt. This study investigates autonomous heat-stress adaptation efforts in two small towns in Germany. Autonomous heat-stress adaptation is approached through a lens of (social) adaptation practices. Small towns are understudied in adaptation research and have played only a minor role when it comes to public adaptation planning due to their lack of formal resources to develop public adaptation strategies. Based on empirical data, consisting of qualitative problem-centered interviews and a quantitative survey, concrete examples of (social) adaptation practices are identified and classified. The presented classification of practices goes beyond earlier attempts by generating insights on the role politics can play in providing a fruitful ground for enabling autonomous adaptation. The paper emphasizes the need for researchers and decision-makers to take a closer look at the wide variety of social adaptation practices already in place. This discloses insights on public–private adaptation mixes, which could ultimately also lift autonomous adaptation from its ad hoc and reactive nature.

Significance Statement
Social adaptation practices are not yet at the center of research and decision-making. We believe that adding practice-based approaches to adaptation governance widens the debate on who is vulnerable and possible coping mechanisms from within society. It shows that vulnerability and adaptation lie in people's everyday actions. We provide a first classification of heat-health adaptation practices according to their heat-health target, the involved individuals and actors, the degree of coordination involved, and the spatial and temporal scales. This classification draws attention to potential governance leverage points to initiate heat-adaptation practices. Focusing more strongly on already-in-use and possible heat-health adaptation practices puts citizens' wants and needs at the center of adaptation governance by including them directly in the adaptation process. This can be of special interest for small towns that want to introduce citizen-based approaches to heat-risk adaptation.

Die Transformationswerkstatt ist ein Weiterbildungsformat für Mitarbeitende öffentlicher Verwaltungen. Es soll ihre Kompetenzen bei der Gestaltung gesellschaftlicher Transformationen stärken. Das Format wurde 2020/21 im Umweltressort erprobt. Es kombiniert praxisorientiert die Vermittlung von Grundlagenwissen und methodischen Fähigkeiten. Diese Handreichung fasst die wichtigsten Ergebnisse und Erfahrungen aus dem Erprobungslauf im Umweltressort zusammen. Die Transformationswerkstatt soll als Format konstant weiterentwickelt werden.

Public administrations are designed towards efficient and effective problem solving. A division of work along the various issues of public policy-making is constitutive for most administrations. With the recent demands to develop comprehensive transformative environmental policies, new tasks and requirements arise, both for individual officers as well as administrative organizations. Two central questions emerge in this context: How do officers and public policy administrations cope with transformation processes and what competencies are needed for shaping transformations? Based on a comprehensive literature review on policies for transformation, organizational learning, and education for sustainable development, we present a concept for transformative literacy. We explored how this concept resonates with officers from the Ministry for the Environment and from the Environmental Protection Agency in Germany. To this end, we conducted 17 qualitative interviews with officers from various departments and levels of hierarchy. The analysis reveals four different types of actors with distinct perspectives regarding their own role and theories of societal and political change. We conclude that a collaborative mode among these types of actors to address the challenges of shaping transformations to sustainability can mobilize additional capacities by making use of their complementary skills and resources. The article suggests that this should be reflected in organizational reforms and in training programs for political administration.

The UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, three international and 'transformative' agendas adopted in 2015, have some overlap and interdependencies. How can their implementation at domestic level be integrated, so as to tap synergies and prevent trade-offs? In this discussion paper, we approach the question of 'integrated implementation' of transformative policy agendas. We first discuss some conceptual questions – how policy agendas interact, how to understand and measure integrated implementation, what we mean by transformative change and how the implementation of transformative agendas can be integrated. These conceptual reflections are contrasted with the empirical results of a document screening of how countries to date deal with overlap, inconsistencies and synergies between different international agendas when implementing these domestically. We discuss the achievements, gaps and deficits with regard to the empirical findings. Observing that integrated implementation to date often fails to achieve deeper levels of integration, we suggest four drivers that may help to overcome the diagnosed gaps and deficits: political leadership, civic participation, science and sustainable finance. In Chapter 5, we conclude that a more integrated implementation of the three 2015 agendas is both possible and expedient. It requires a more determined tackling of trade-offs and development of joint strategies.

To date, processes to implement the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and international climate change mitigation and adaptation obligations are largely disconnected in most countries. This creates administrative overlaps, costs and hampers the development of effective problem solutions. Against this background, the report presents the state of research on policy integration and integrated policy-making. We discuss different understandings of policy integration and elaborate criteria for assessing policy integration from different academic perspectives. With the help of a comprehensive screening of the empirical practices of integration, we identify three approaches: Cognitive capacity development, institutional coordination and joint implementation strategies. In addition, we identify factors that can promote the use of integration mechanisms ("drivers" of integration). These include political leadership, civic participation and deliberation, inputs from science and sustainable finance. For some countries that are particularly successful in both their sustainability and climate policies, we analyse the use of integration mechanisms. For selected countries, the analysis is deepened and linked to the drivers of integration. Finally, we discuss the possibilities for transferring practices and drivers of integration both to Germany and to other countries. The report concludes with conclusions drawn from the extensive empirical surveys.

Diese Handreichung fasst Erkenntnisse eines Forschungsprojekts zu Einflussfaktoren auf (Umwelt-)Politiktransfer zusammen. Sie richtet sich an Mitarbeitende in Ministerien, in nachgeordneten Behörden und in Durchführungsorganisationen. Es werden Empfehlungen für die bi- und multilaterale (umwelt-)politische Zusammenarbeit, z.B. in Dialogformaten, in einzelnen Projekten und in übergreifenden Programmen, gegeben.

2015 was a watershed year for addressing global challenges. Under the umbrella of the United Nations, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction were adopted. Six years after their adoption, implementation of these post-2015 agendas lags behind in many aspects, raising the need for exploring pathways that enhance their effective implementation. One way forward is working towards identifying and using synergies between them. The underlying policy fields of climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and sustainable development are linked through a common emphasis on reducing vulnerabilities. Operational and policy instruments are available to realize synergies at the implementation level. Nevertheless, a lack of institutional capacities, policy-making in silos instead of cross-sectoral coordination and insufficient funding are just some of the barriers hindering coherent policies in practice. This report introduces the concept of Sustainable Adaptation Pathways (SAPs) that can act as guidance when planning and implementing integrated policies that aim to foster sustainable adaptation measures. SAPs describe a coherent set of alternative adaptation strategies and procedures composed of measures and policies to strengthen the capacities of populations, institutions and ecosystems to adapt to climate-related risks over time while enhancing the social justice, environmental integrity and economic sustainability of socio-ecological systems. Case studies are used to illustrate specific aspects of applying the concept in practice. In addition, practical recommendations for implementing SAPs are derived, taking into account both enabling contextual factors and lock-in effects.

Im Jahr 2015 wurden drei hochrangige Politikagenden auf internationaler Ebene verabschiedet: die 2030-Agenda für nachhaltige Entwicklung mit 17 Zielen für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung (Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs), das Pariser Abkommen zum Klimaschutz und das Sendai-Rahmenwerk für Katastrophenvorsorge. Inhaltlich gibt es verschiedene Überlappungen und Schnittstellen zwischen diesen Agenden. So gilt beispielsweise die Erreichung von Klimaschutzzielen als Voraussetzung für die Erreichung sozialer Ziele beispielsweise im Bereich der Armuts- und Hungerbekämpfung, aber auch des Gesundheitsschutzes. Über fünf Jahre nach ihrer Verabschiedung hinkt die Umsetzung der drei Agenden hinterher und die Zielerreichung ist bisher begrenzt. Eine Strategie, um Umsetzung und Wirksamkeit von 2030-Agenda, Pariser Übereinkommen und Sendai Rahmenwerk zu verbessern, besteht in ihrer stärker integrierten Umsetzung. Der Bericht fasst Ergebnisse eines ReFoPlan-Vorhabens zusammen, das sich mit Wechselwirkungen zwischen den drei Agenden, Möglichkeiten ihrer integrierten Umsetzung und der Entwicklung nachhaltiger Anpassungspfade ("Sustainable Adaptation Pathways") befasst hat. Er stellt Hintergrund und Zielsetzung, Arbeitspakte, Analyseergebnisse und die im Rahmen des Projekts durchgeführten Veranstaltungen überblicksartig dar.

Die Mitarbeiter*innen politischer Verwaltungen tragen eine besondere Verantwortung für die Gestaltung sozial-ökologischer Transformationen und eines gerechten Übergangs zur Nachhaltigkeit in allen Sektoren. Sie spielen eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Entwicklung und Umsetzung nationaler, europäischer und internationaler Politik und müssen daher die Schnittstelle zwischen politischen Entscheidungsträger*innen und der Öffentlichkeit nicht nur verwalten, sondern auch erfolgreich gestalten. Ihre Organisationen bereiten politische Entscheidungen vor, die teilweise lang andauernde Auswirkungen auf die Zukunft haben können. Für die Gestaltung und den Umgang mit diesen Entscheidungen benötigen Mitarbeiter*innen politischer Verwaltungen individuelle und kollektive Transformationskompetenzen (transformative literacy). Der vorliegende Abschlussbericht stellt die Ergebnisse des Forschungsprojekts "Transformationen Wagen" (Laufzeit: 2017-2021) vor, das sich mit dem Aufbau von Kompetenzen zur erfolgreichen Gestaltung und Begleitung gesellschaftlicher Transformationen im Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (BMU) und seinen nachgeordneten Behörden befasste. In diesem Zusammenhang wurde eine Lernwerkstatt zur transformative literacy mit und für die Mitarbeiter*innen entwickelt und umgesetzt. Dieses Programm - die "Transformationswerkstatt" - wurde iterativ entwickelt und von Mai 2020 bis Januar 2021 zum ersten Mal durchgeführt. Diese erste Auflage stieß auf große Resonanz. Das entwickelte Programm bietet eine erste solide Grundlage für die Verbreitung sowie für die Ausweitung auf andere Ministerien und Behörden. Es sollte fortentwickelt werden. In den folgenden Abschnitten werden der Entstehungskontext, der methodische Ansatz für die Entwicklung des Programms, seine Eckpunkte und die wichtigsten Schlussfolgerungen aus der Umsetzung und Evaluation vorgestellt. Eine kurze Vorstellung und Fragen und Antworten zu dem Programm ist in einem zusätzlichen Dokument zu finden.