Somebody should do something : A qualitative study to determine challenges that politicians face in decsion-making to mitigate climate change

Abstract: Climate change is known to cause more frequently occurring extreme events which threaten both natural and human systems as we know them. Island nations are particularly vulnerable to these climate-induced changes, and the Åland Islands are no exception to this rule. Åland has already seen a change in typical climate patterns as the temperature has been increasing and precipitation decreasing, which is a cause for concern. Political leaders have a great responsibility to mitigate climate change, through decisions on policy implementation and other legislative action, to strive towards sustainability. However, change is not being made fast enough. Hence, this study aims to determine the challenges that politicians of the Parliament of Åland face when making decisions that promote climate change mitigation, as well as seek why these challenges are present. The study was conducted through qualitative interviews with the seven political group leaders, one for each represented party, that participate in Bärkraft’s group leader forum. Bärkraft is a local network on Åland which strive toward sustainability through its Development and Sustainability Agenda. In addition, the main secretary of Bärkraft was interviewed. The interviews demonstrated that a majority of the participants had previous experience with climate change issues although, just under half of the respondents agreed that Åland faces little to no climate-related risks. From the interviews six themes were identified which relate to challenges in decision-making for climate change mitigation. For instance, a clear majority of the participants mentioned different economic aspects as a barrier in decision-making, likewise, the abstractness of climate change mitigation was deemed as challenging to handle, and marketing climate change mitigation to the citizens and other politicians was seen as challenging since proper arguments are essential for success. In addition, twelve sub-challenges were found that explains why the identified challenges are present. These sub-challenges included e.g., electoral popularity, municipal planning, motivation, etc. In conclusion, these challenges, with associated sub-challenges, highlight the complexity and uncertainty of climate change mitigation which sets barriers for the political leaders in making decisions for policy implementation. The study would have benefited from a larger number of participants. It also has limited generalizability, being a specific case and not including the complete decision-making process for policy implementation and viewpoints from other societal actors. However, the mentioned limitations can be subject to further research on the topic.