Constraints and Enablers of Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation – the Case of Berlin

Abstract: As the need to adapt to a changing climate and the political rhetoric in this regard are growing, Berlin’s Senate has issued strategic policies – complemented by an increase of funding. Berlin’s socio-cultural features and place-based factors seem predisposed for so-called “Nature-based Solutions” (NbS) that can support the achievement of adaptation efforts. This encouraging context seems to be contrasted by a lack of coherent action, as suggested by environmental actors – an incoherency this thesis sets out to understand. Through 11 semi-structured interviews with actors from the Borough and Senate level, a review of policy documentation and a scoping study of academic papers, the research maps governance constraints and enablers of NbS-related Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) in Berlin’s context. The study finds that long-term effects of Berlin’s austerity policy still partly hinder the uptake and/or realisation of NbS/CCA, that the legal and institutional setting and practises are inappropriate to meet the required interdisciplinarity and that implementable guidance is lacking. To create an enabling environment for NbS/CCA instead, practitioners recommend creatively communicated policy programmes and science-based assessments, a simplification of funding applications, an administrative reform to encourage intersectoral cooperation, a general increase of staff volume on all levels, concrete handbooks to enhance practical implementation and adapted regulations and laws. A communicational effort between Senate and Borough levels as well as strategic decisions on democratic prioritisation result to be necessary to enable change regarding institutional resources, institutional and legal settings and cooperation with non-institutional actors in favour of NbS/CCA.