It is now widely recognized that stakeholder interaction and dialogue is essential to improve decisions about and awareness of climate change. The term ‘stakeholder’ is broad and researchers and practitioners may have interrelated and contrasting views on who is a stakeholder or who is (or should be) responsible for adaptation to climate change. To engage stakeholders in research or other projects on adaptation thus requires a careful mapping of the stakeholder landscape and identification of relevant actors at different levels. Through a case study approach, based on studies of two Swedish urban regions, Stockholm and Gothenburg, this paper proposes a systematic method to analyse and identify roles and responsibilities in the stakeholder landscape. The initial mapping exercise was complemented by participatory studies of local and regional stakeholders’ perceptions of who is, or should be, involved in adaptation and their significance for climate change adaptation in the respective regions. The results indicate the value of careful stakeholder analysis for sustainable, effective, planned adaptation that is flexible, but also systematic enough to fulfil practical and scientific requirements for the study and advancement of ongoing adaptation processes and implementation.

It is now widely accepted that adaptation will be necessary if we are to manage the risks posed by climate change. What we know about adaptation, however, is limited. While there is a well established body of scholarship proposing assessment approaches and explaining concepts, few studies have examined if and how adaptation is taking place at a national or regional level. This deficit in understanding is particularly pronounced in developed nations which have typically been assumed to have a low vulnerability to climate change. Yet as recent research highlights, this assumption is misplaced: developed nations are experiencing the most pronounced changes in climatic conditions globally and have significant pockets of vulnerability. Chapters in this book profile cases from different sectors in developed nations where specific adaptation measures have been identified, implemented, and evaluated. The contributions provide practical advice and guidance that can help guide adaptation planning in multiple contexts, identifying transferable lessons. It is a comprehensive and timely piece of work on an emerging body of literature that is critical for both academics and policy makers to be aware of and learn from in regards to the importance of adaptation and adaptation needs associated with climate change and variability. It is a strong step forward in bringing together this literature and thinking in one collective piece of writing. Chris Furgal, Trent University, Canada Lead Author IPCC 4th Assessment Report This volume is ambitious in scope and distinctive in focus. It is not about climate change science or mitigation or impacts... but focuses clearly on the processes of adaptation. This volume represents a valuable compilation of ideas, methods and applications dealing with adaptation to climate change in developed nations. Barry Smit, University of Guelph, Canada Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Change This book provides key insights from leading scholars who are addressing an important but neglected question: How easy is it to adapt to climate change in practice? Focusing on evidence from developed countries, the contributions provide reasons for both optimism and concern, and lessons that are critical for anyone interested in climate change policy and a sustainable future. Karen O Brien, University of Oslo, Norway Chair of Global Environmental Change and Human Security

This paper analyses perceptions of adaptation space in Swedish forestry and the potential for developing and implementing climate adaptation processes. The empirical material of this study builds on participatory methods and focus group discussions with private forest owners and forest officials in two forest intensive regions in Sweden. This allowed for a qualitative analysis of the many aspects of adaptation processes, with adaptation space as the main analytical framework to understand the capacity for climate adaptation on levels other than the national average, departing from actor’s perceptions rather than statistics and indices. We discuss if and how exposure to extreme weather events and variability in the past, and the prospect of future climate change and extremes, translates into adaptation action, and examine the role of perceived ability to adapt to the multiple effects of climate change.

This paper examines the science-practice interface in the complex issue of adapting society to climate change. Through analyses of science-based stakeholder dialogues with climate scientists, municipal officers and private individual forest owners in Sweden, this paper looks at how local experts in the forestry and municipal planning sectors share and integrate scientific knowledge and experience into their work strategies and practices. The results demonstrate how local experts jointly conceptualize climate adaptation, how scientific knowledge is domesticated among local experts in dialogue with scientific experts, the emergence of anchoring devices and, in a more general way, the boundary spanning functions that are at work in the respective sectors.