Climate Adaptation and Land Use Governance: The Vertical Axis

Abstract

The existing and expected impacts of climate change are increasingly well-documented and pose profound challenges to existing governance norms. This article addresses one of those norms: the norm of local control over land use. The article first sketches the important role of land use in climate adaptation and the insufficiency of current initiatives. The article then assesses the federalism values that guide jurisdictional choices: pragmatic efficacy, democratic legitimacy, and the prevention of tyranny. Based on each of these values, it argues that continued reliance on local initiative is insufficient. Instead, a multilevel governance approach that supplements local control with federal resources and parameters is necessary to adequately prepare for climate change and meet the wide range of local, state, and federal interests at stake.

Keywords: climate change, global warming, land use, climate adaptation, federalism