Implementing climate change adaptation actions in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago (Chile)

This thesis investigates the main drivers that support the implementation of climate adaptation initiatives in the Municipalities of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile. The research aims to discover which of the three factors mentioned in academic literature (Framing, Political and Local Governance capacities) have greater predominance and play a fundamental role in climate change adaptation. Therefore, the current state of Municipalities regarding climate change adaptation is examined and analysed to see how local governments are implementing adaptation initiatives. Then the main factors contributing to the implementation were studied. Thus, the main research question of the thesis is: Which factors enable the implementation of climate change adaptation initiatives in Chilean metropolitan municipalities? The strategy for achieving this objective consisted in a combination of different analyses. Firstly, a desk research was developed by reviewing main policies and instruments to evaluate the current adaptative climate situation in the Metropolitan Municipalities of Santiago. To complement this information a survey was conducted with the purpose to go in depth by investigating the factors that were considered fundamental by Municipalities. Lastly, a Qualitative Comparative Analysis was performed. This approach enables to investigate cases and the conditions that may cause an outcome, in this case, the implementation of adaptation initiatives by assessing equifinality. Part of this analysis include the review of the three cases study, facilitating the interpretation of the model. The main findings of the research underline the important influence of the driver development of Climate Adaptation Plan as a sufficient and necessary condition to the implementation of climate adaptation initiatives. Through the case studies it was revealed that having one of these plans implicitly contained other highly relevant factors, such as trainings, staff, cooperation through subsidies/programs, legislative support, commitment, and participation in climate change networks. Further, the current state of municipalities revealed that the largest number of implementations actions were carried out from municipalities that count with these plans. Thus, based on the results of the model and the information gathered from official municipal documents and plans, the main recommendation for mayors is to prioritized climate change and address it by developing a climate adaptation plan whereby they can address main risks and vulnerabilities and achieve the implementation of action in its territories in a transparent and effective manner.