Country Report Switzerland: the Cantonal Climate Strategy of Grisons

GoApply - Multidimensional Governance of Climate Change Adaptation in Policy Making and Practice

WP2 Advancing the mainstreaming of climate adaptation policies and measures

Case study reports on the mainstreaming of climate adaptation Country Report Switzerland: The cantonal climate strategy of Grisons

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL

Final Report

Zurich, September 2018

This project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg Alpine Space programme

Brief Summary of the Case Study

The canton of Grisons was identified as an interesting case because it has taken on a pioneer role for fostering adaptation to climate change on the cantonal level. The canton was among the first to both formulate a multisectoral Climate Strategy and include the topic of adaptation to climate change as an equally important addition to climate change mitigation1.

The primary goal of the cantonal climate strategy Grisons is to analyse the challenges related to climate change and to bundle and focus the efforts of the 13 involved cantonal offices and departments in the two fields of climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. The strategy does this by defining sever- al fields of action, determining which cantonal offices are involved in that field and assigning one of those offices to take a leading role.2 All cantonal offices deliver progress reports to the cantonal climate secretariat and participate in the annual climate forum which is meant to facilitate the exchange between the offices. An executive committee defines primary goals for the implementation of the strategy. It is made up of two members of the cantonal executive and the three directors of the cantonal offices for energy, environment and natural hazards and forests. Key elements Most important success factors:

 Organizing the common development of the cantonal climate strategy as an equal partnership helped to avoid intersectoral conflict and enabled fruitful horizontal cooperation. (4)  The improved exchange and coordination between sectors enabled optimal use of synergies and helped to avoid conflicts of interest. (4)  Acting as a unified network also lent more political weight to the suggestions and demands of the cantonal offices. (4, 6)  Yearly meetings keep the topic a priority, foster exchange between offices, generate peer pressure to engage in climate change adaptation and increase awareness and expertise on the topic among the participants. (4, 5)  Gathering resources for adaptation measures with clear monetary benefits such as measures regarding natural hazards is usually simple. (7)  Keeping the climate strategy concrete enough to serve as a guideline for the daily work of the involved offices ensured its relevance. (2, 3) Most important barriers:

 Lack of Resources for any measures without direct, clear monetary benefits. (7)  General scepticism towards new enterprises that will result in additional work. (2, 7)  Engagement of tangentially affected sectors is dependent on the personal attitudes of decision makers. (6)  The cantonal climate strategy is not well known outside the cantonal offices. (5)

1 Amt für Natur und Umwelt Graubünden (ANU). 2015. Klimawandel Graubünden. Synthese der Herausforderungen und Handlungsfelder. 2 Amt für Natur und Umwelt des Kantons Graubünden (ANU). 2015a. Klimawandel Graubünden. Analyse der Heraus- forderungen und Handlungsfelder im Bereich Klimaanpassung.

 Sovereignty of municipalities must be respected, thus largely limiting higher levels to conducting awareness-building measures and providing a strategic framework and data. (-)  Actors on the local level can be difficult to reach if no existing communication channels are availa- ble. (4)  Soft measures only reach actors who are already somewhat sensitized to the issue. (5, 6)  Effects are difficult to quantify making them hard to evaluate. (-)

Barrier categories (Biesbroek et al. 2011)

1 Conflicting Timescales 2 Substantive, Strategic and Institutional Uncertainty 3 Institutional Crowdedness and Institutional Voids 4 Fragmentation 5 Lack of Awareness and Communication 6 Motives and Willingness to Act 7 Resources

Lessons learnt One of the biggest issues regarding adaptation to climate change is the fact that climate change impacts affect many different sectors, calling for responses from many different actors. To ensure the coherency of adaptation plans, strategies and measures and to take optimal advantage of synergies, coordination between these many actors is necessary. As such, the question of how to organize this coordination is one of the most common and important barriers to climate change adaptation. On the horizontal level, traditional conflicts between sectors often further impede such coordination. Especially when it comes to questions of leadership, many offices dislike being told what to do by their peers.

The canton of Grisons managed to successfully deal with these barriers by organizing the cooperation between cantonal departments and offices regards adaptation to climate change as an equal partnership. The involved offices came together and commonly discussed fields of action, priorities and focal points. They then decided which offices should be involved in tackling which focal points and who should take the lead regarding each focal point. A climate secretariat coordinates the implementation of this commonly developed strategy. All offices deliver yearly progress report to the climate secretariat and participate in a yearly exchange event for cantonal sectors – the climate forum.

All in all, the cantonal climate strategy was quite successful in addressing the climate change impacts most relevant to Grisons, including all sectors relevant to those impacts, ensuring coherency between sectoral policy and itself and increasing the awareness and capacity of the people involved in its development and implementation. However, the engagement of some of the involved sectors lags behind that of the others, demonstrating that personal motivation and interests of important stakeholders within the cantonal administration is still a crucial factor. Additionally, the successful implementation of the strategy will largely depend on how well the different cantonal offices and departments are able to reach the local level. Recommendations for transferability The canton of Grisons has organized horizontal cooperation during the development and implementation of the cantonal climate strategy as a fairly equal partnership: One office handles much of the organizational

effort, but the different sectors remain individually responsible for organizing and financing measures per- taining to their sector. This approach mirrors the development process of the adaptation strategy of the federal council. It has proven successful in avoiding traditional conflicts between sectors and insuring the involvement of all relevant sectors. At the same time, this cooperative approach usually means that there is no overseeing instance that can force lagging sectors to act. Thus, the individual motives and interests of important stakeholders within the administration remains an important success factor. Measures to generate social pressure to act, such as a regular exchange between sectors on progress made, may be a method to increase the compliance of reluctant participants that is more politically feasible than trying to introduce measures to generate hard pressure. Similar approaches may be fruitful in other cases where traditional rivalries between sectors or a lack of political will for hard pressure threaten the success of horizontal cooperation. However, it’s important to keep in mind that such approaches have their own drawbacks as explained here.

Another important lesson that should be applicable in most cases is that actual adaptation must be fitted to local needs and conditions and thus usually happens at the local level. As such, a big success factor of policies or strategies formulated on a higher administrative level is the question of how to reach the local level. If any participants have cultivated existing networks to actors on the local level, these networks should be utilized whenever possible.

Section I – Characterization of the Case Study and its context

A characterization of the territory. Spanning 7105 square kilometres, the canton of Grisons is the largest of the Swiss canton by area but also the one with the lowest population density. Approximately 200’000 people live spread among 112 municipalities, only 7 of which count more than 4000 inhabitants.3 The landscape is predominantly mountainous and dotted by many valleys and lakes. The most important economic sector is the service industry, especially tourism. 4 According to calculations by the cantonal office for economy and tourism in the year 2008 the tourism sector was responsible for about 30% of gross value added.5 Accommodation statistics show, that there are usually more tourists during the winter season6 and winter sports are one of the big touristic attractions of the canton. Commerce and industry as well as agriculture and forestry are also fairly important economic sectors. Agriculture and forestry make up for about 8% of employment compared to about 5% on national average. An estimated 50% of those farms are organic, once again far surpassing the national average of approximately 12.5%.7 Grisons, especially the agricultural sector of Grisons often takes on a pioneer role when it comes to adapting to natural developments and changing work processes to be more sustainable.

Climate change impacts threaten the canton of Grisons in many ways. Expected dangers and effects include changing average temperatures, increased heatwaves, less snow and frost days, changes to precipitation regimes, increased chances of draughts, reduction of snow cover, melting glaciers and permafrost, increased risk of avalanches, increased chances of floods, increased chances of rockfall, increased risk of for-

3 Bundesamt für Statistik (BFS). 2018. Ständige Wohnbevölkerung. 4 Amt für Wirtschaft und Tourismus Graubünden (AWT). 2010. Wertschöpfung im Kanton Graubünden: Entwicklung von Regionen und Branchen 1990 bis 2013 5 Amt für Wirtschaft und Tourismus Graubünden (AWT). 2018. Tourismus: Volkswirtschaftliche Bedeutung. 6 Amt für Wirtschaft und Tourismus Graubünden (AWT). 2018. Beherbergungsstatistik Graubünden. 7 Werner Hediger. HTW Chur. 2016. Regionale Biolandwirtschaft und Tourismuswirtschaft in Graubünden.

est fires and increased risk of storms. The cantonal climate strategy assesses these changes and how they are likely to affect different fields. If no adaptive action is taken, they estimate that the biggest risks will be the impacts of climate change on human health, the tourism sector and biodiversity but there are also sig- nificant risks regarding the energy sector, infrastructure, water management, agriculture and forestry.

There is a long and well documented history of natural disasters in the canton of Grisons – most recently when the small village of Bondo had to be completely evacuated in the summer of 2017 due to a landslide that caused 41 million Swiss Francs in property damage and likely killed 8 hikers. The cantonal department for forests and natural hazards plays a correspondingly important role in the governance of the canton, being well-equipped in terms of financial and personnel resources and prominently engaged and represented in the climate strategy. Unfortunately, it is questionable how aware the populace at large is of the dangers of climate change beyond the scope of disaster management. Governance Framework The legal basis for addressing climate change in the canton of Grisons is primarily the cantonal energy legislation and the energy ordinance, and indirectly the air hygiene action plan. Climate change is also explicitly addressed in the current and prior government programs. In autumn 2014, the government commissioned the administration to develop a cantonal climate strategy. The strategy was developed under the lead of the cantonal office for nature and the environment in cooperation by all 13 relevant cantonal offices and departments. These included the following:

 The office for energy and transport  The hunting and fishing office  The office for agriculture and geo-information  The food safety and animal health authority  The military and civil protection office  The office for nature and the environment  The office for spatial development  The department for forests and natural hazards  The department of economy and tourism  The buildings insurance Grisons  The health department  The structural engineering office  The civil engineering office The strategy was completed in 2015 and subsequently anchored within the government program. It defined a climate steering committee to ensure its successful implementation. The committee consist of two members of the cantonal government as well as the heads of the office for energy and transport, the office for nature and the environment and the department for forests and natural hazards. The committee makes the final decisions on which fields of action should be prioritized as well as which offices should be responsible for what fields of action. These decisions are reflected in a responsibility-matrix that defines priority fields of actions as well as involved sectors and leading sectors for each of those fields of action. The climate strategy also introduced the climate secretariat, which is financed by the office for nature and the environment. The climate secretariat assists the cantonal offices in the implementation of the climate

strategy by gathering and processing information on current adaptation efforts for the reporting to the federal office for the environment mandated by the national CO2-law. The secretariat also processes and produces informational material on climate change both for the cantonal offices and the broad public and organizes the climate forum – a yearly exchange format for the cantonal officials responsible for handling the topic of climate change adaptation and mitigation within their respective sectors.

Beyond the funds the office for nature and the environment provides to the climate secretariat – each sector is responsible for financing their part in the implementation of the climate strategy itself. At the same time, each sector also retains full authority on how to invest those funds. The climate steering committee and the climate secretariat may set priorities within the context of the strategy and make suggestions and recommendations but are unable to actually dictate concrete actions. Entry points analysis The canton of Grisons is a case of climate change adaptation efforts on a regional level in which the actors try to deal with the broad impacts of climate change by cooperatively developing a common strategy and try to implement it by mainstreaming its goals and guidelines into their day to day operations. As such, it is an example of the integration of adaptation goals into regional plans, programs and policies. An early analysis shows, that this process has been fairly successful, but that success varies across sectors and is largely dependent on personal values and engagement of important stakeholders within the different sectors of the cantonal administration.

The case on a timeline

 2007: The cantonal action plan for air pollution control is adjusted to include measures to reduce CO2 emissions.  2008: The cantonal government program for the period 2009-2012 defines “actively confronting climate change” as one of its guiding principles.  2010: The cantonal energy-law and -ordinance are adjusted to incorporate measures to reduce CO2 emissions according to the goals of the “2000-watt society” policy.  2012: The first part of the climate change adaptation strategy of the federal council is published. It defines important challenges, goals and principles for climate change adaptation in Switzerland.  2013: The national CO2-law and ordinance are changed to reflect the growing need for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The new law mandates the cantons to regularly inform the federal office for the environment of the progress made regarding climate change mitigation and adaptation.  2014: The cantonal government of Grisons instructs the cantonal administration to compile a com- prehensive assessment of existing activities regarding climate change mitigation or adaptation in Grisons and to develop a cantonal climate strategy.  2015: The cantonal climate strategy Grisons is finished. It is composed of four parts: One on climate change adaptation, one on climate change mitigation, one on important risks and opportunities regarding climate change and a synthesis.  2016: The cantonal climate strategy is anchored in the new government program for the period 2017-2020.  2016: The national pilot program adaptation co-finances three pilot projects for climate change adaptation within the canton of Grisons. The cantonal administration takes advantage of this oppor-

tunity by co-financing the projects and incorporating them in the implementation of the cantonal climate strategy.

Execution of adaptation pilot projects

2016

Cantonal action plan for air pollution control

2007

Section II – Analysis of the explored dimensions Mainstreaming: Saliency The cantonal government program Grisons for the period 2009-2012 published on 26th of February 2008 first made mention of the need for adapted use of territories affected by climate change. It defines the adaptation of existing protection and precaution measures as vital for the sustainable safeguarding of the le- bensraum Grisons. Thus, while climate change adaptation is not explicitly mentioned, the theme is clearly relevant to the strategic goals formulated in the program.

The cantonal climate strategy cites three documents as the primary legal basis on the cantonal level for handling climate change in Grisons: The cantonal energy law, the cantonal energy ordinance and the cantonal action plan for air pollution control. These documents are all primarily concerned with climate change mitigation and make no mention of climate change adaptation. However, the cantonal climate strategy also heavily builds on the adaptation strategy of the federal council as well as the mandate formulated by the national CO2-law to report progress by the cantons regarding climate change adaptation to the federal office for the environment. Thus, the cantonal climate strategy builds on a legal basis that clearly defines the need for climate change adaptation alongside climate change mitigation.

The cantonal climate strategy itself clearly treats mitigation and adaptation as equally important aspects of climate policy. In fact, the working paper on climate change adaptation is slightly more extensive that the one on climate change mitigation and out of ten focal points for action defined by the strategy, seven are primarily concerned with adaptation and one is equally concerned with adaptation and mitigation.

Anchoring the climate strategy in the current government program and including two members of the cantonal government in the climate steering committee ensured that the topic of adaptation is also well known to the current government.

However, while the development process of the strategy was designed to ensure its validity and relevance across sectors, our interviews with senior members of the cantonal administration as well as experts involved in the implementation of the strategy have shown, that the saliency of the topic varies strongly across sectors.

We conducted interviews with representatives from the office for nature and the environment, the office for agriculture and geo-information, the department for forests and natural hazards, the department of economy and tourism and the buildings insurance Grisons as well as independent experts involved in the climate secretariat or the implementation of adaptation pilot projects. The cantonal climate strategy was developed under the lead of the office for nature and the environment and it is thus hardly surprising that the saliency of the strategy and its relevance for the day-to-day activity of this office is very high.

The department for forests and natural hazards is also well aware of the impacts of climate change on their domain and the resulting need for climate change adaptation. Climate change adaptation is prominently featured in both the newly developed guidelines for integral risk management, which have been anchored in the government program 2017-2020, as well as in the forest development plan. This forest development plan serves as a guideline for all forest owners, predominantly the municipalities, to develop their forest management plans. Thus, the discussion of climate change adaptation in the forest development plan guarantees that all forest owners within the canton will take it into consideration.

The department for forests and natural hazards asserts that they would’ve dealt with climate change impacts on their sector independently of their participation in the development of the climate strategy. But they also recognize the value of the closer cooperation between the sectors

The buildings insurance Grisons is solely concerned with changes to estimated risks due to climate change’s impact on the severity and frequency of natural catastrophes. As this is a classic adaptation issue, it can be said that the saliency of the topic is very high. On the other hand, their single focus on the issue of natural hazards also conveys a somewhat narrow understanding of climate change adaptation.

The office for agriculture and geo-information seems primarily concerned with climate mitigation. Howev- er, they also recognize the importance of adaptation issues.

The department of economy and tourism however, admits that climate change adaptation is not a very salient issue for their work. They see little to no opportunity or need to engage in climate change mitigation or adaptation in the course of their day-to-day work and climate change, its impacts and how to deal with them are not considered whatsoever in their mission statement and basic guidelines. While they’re open to the possibility of funding touristic measures related to climate change adaptation, they admit that the issue of climate change will usually not factor heavily into their decisions on whether to finance a project.

Conclusions

Climate change adaptation is explicitly one of two focal points of the cantonal climate strategy Grisons and of equal importance to the second focal point of climate change mitigation. The strategy discusses possible and probably impacts and resulting risks and opportunities in depth and correspondingly assigns responsibility for different issues to the various involved sectors. The strategy builds on the national adaptation strategy as well as a cantonal climate analysis by MeteoSwiss. As regards the cantonal strategy on its own, the saliency of climate change adaptation is clearly very high.

However, as interviews with representatives from different cantonal offices have shown, the saliency of climate change adaptation is not equally high for all involved sectors. Sectors primarily concerned by climate change impacts on natural hazards are very concerned with climate change adaptation, as is the office for nature and the environment. However, other sectors such as the office for agriculture and geo- information still view their main contribution to the climate strategy in mitigation measures and others still are even less committed to their part in the implementation of the strategy, which they perceive to be the domain and responsibility of the other sectors. In conclusion, the saliency of climate change adaptation in the cantonal climate strategy Grisons is generally very high. However, our analysis has also shown that when you break the issue down to the level of individual participants, the saliency of the issue still very much depends on the personal attitudes of key stakeholders within the administration or the government.

Mainstreaming: Coherency The cantonal climate strategy Grisons tries to ensure the coherency of sectoral policies with the climate strategy by including all relevant sectors in the development of the climate strategy. The development process for the cantonal climate strategy was inspired by the example of the climate change adaptation strategy of the federal council: the climate change adaptation strategy of the federal council was developed by an intersectoral working committee under the lead of the federal office for the environment. Similarly, the cantonal climate strategy Grisons started as an initiative of the cantonal office for nature and the environ-

ment and its development remained under the lead of said office. However, other relevant sectors were incorporated in the planning and development process from the very beginning. The decision on which sectors to include was once again inspired by the selection of sectors that participated in the development of the climate change adaptation strategy of the federal council, slightly adjusted based on the specific context of the canton.

The cantonal climate strategy compiled eight fields of action and assigned the respective responsible cantonal offices and departments to each field of action including one that would take over primary responsibility. The responsibility assignments are affirmed by the climate steering committee. The implementation of the strategy is primarily under the domain of the individual sectors and financed by their regular budg- ets.

Theoretically, the inclusion of all relevant sectors and the fact that the involved sectors decide concrete implementation measures mostly on their own should serve to ensure that their sectoral policies are coherent with the climate strategy. However, as the example of the department of economy and tourism shows, this approach does not actually guarantee that all involved sectors will coherently take the issue of climate change into account in their day-to-day operations. The sole mechanism of climate-proofing sectoral policies included in the climate strategy largely relies on the proactive engagement of key stakeholders within the involved departments and offices. Similarly, coherency and implementation progress are only loosely monitored in the form of a yearly exchange meeting and the mandatory progress reports to the federal office for the environment, which are compiled by the cantonal office for nature and the environment. While these exchanges and reports serve as some form of monitoring, there are no mechanisms in place beyond social pressure to force lagging sectors to act. Additionally, as one interview partner explained, if one were so willing it would be quite simple to present some activities that an office may have conducted anyway as related to climate change in order to nominally fulfil one’s obligations to the climate strategy. These deficits regarding the ability of the strategy to enforce coherency are directly related to the cooperative development approach reliant on soft pressure that was chosen to develop it. However, all interview partners agreed that any other approach would have been doomed from the start without stronger political pressure and dedicated resources behind it. As it is, the climate secretariat must achieve a difficult bal- ance between not fulfilling their monitoring role sufficiently and alienating involved sectors by taking on a supervisory role without actually having the authority to back it up. Even so, the climate secretariat en- deavours to develop a database to support a more standardized reporting system regarding conducted measures and implementation progress. Conclusions

Sectoral coherency with the goals of the adaptation strategy is meant to be ensured by the active inclusion of all relevant sectors in the development and implementation of the strategy. The cantonal office for nature and the environment gathers progress reports from all involved departments and offices to be for- warded to the federal office for the environment as mandated by the national CO2-law. Additionally, the climate forum is a yearly event meant to serve as a platform for exchange between all involved sectors and as such provides some measure of monitoring as well. The climate secretariat is working on the development of a database to support a more standardized reporting system in order to improve the monitoring system of implementation progress and reduce the effort necessary for the mandatory reporting to the state.

However, in order to secure the cooperation of all relevant sectors, a very cooperative approach was chosen for the development of the cantonal climate strategy. The responsibility for funding and implementing concrete measures remains with the individual departments and offices and mechanisms to monitor or even enforce coherency are limited to the exertion of soft pressure.

Mainstreaming: Awareness / Capacity Our interview partners estimate that the awareness and capacity of the people primarily involved in the case study is generally high. Except for the climate secretariat, which is financed by and thus loosely a part of the office for nature and the environment, the cantonal offices do not have the resources to dedicate an official position to climate change. Neither does the cantonal climate strategy specify that one person from each office is to be primarily responsible for handling climate change mitigation and adaptation on behalf of the office. Nevertheless, in most offices, one or two people have emerged as the primary contact per- sons for matters regarding climate change. These are the people who participated in the development of the climate strategy, attend the yearly climate forum and handle the mandatory reporting of climate change adaptation measures to the state. Who exactly has taken on these responsibilities for each office seems to have largely been a matter of personal interests and motivation. However, most of the people in question are either in command of their office or at least in command of one of its subdivisions.

Many of these people were probably already quite aware and capable before their engagement in the cantonal climate strategy. As one interview partner remarked, it is also difficult to differentiate between the effect of the climate strategy and the general evolution over time, as climate change has also become an evermore salient societal topic during the last years. Still our interview partners assert that in the early years, it was quite apparent that the level of awareness and capacity among the participants of the climate forum was very heterogeneous. In the meantime, those regular participants who used to have a compara- tively low awareness and capacity have largely caught up. The climate forum does not only serve as a platform for exchange but also hosts lectures by experts from many different fields and sectors. Apparently, this format has been quite successful in fostering awareness and capacity among its participants.

Another remarkable success of the climate strategy is the institutionalized inclusion of two members of the cantonal government in the climate steering committee. This arrangement not only politically legitimizes the strategy, it also fosters awareness and capacity for climate change adaptation and mitigation among these government members.

However, the level of awareness and capacity among employees of the cantonal offices beyond those people who are directly involved in the implementation of climate strategy is another matter. There are no institutionalized mechanisms or training courses in place to foster awareness and capacity within cantonal offices. Educating their colleagues and employees on climate change mitigation and adaptation isn’t an ex- plicit task for the respective representants of the different offices and none of our interview partners knew of any such efforts in any office. Correspondingly, our interview partners estimate, that the level of awareness and capacity among employees of the cantonal offices in general is still very heterogenous.

Conclusions

The awareness and capacity of the people primarily involved in the case study is generally high as a result of their participation in the development and implementation of the cantonal climate strategy. The yearly climate forum and the expert lectures hosted therein have proven an effective tool to increase awareness

and capacity among its participant and has contributed to the equalization of awareness and capacity among the representant of the different sectors involved. However, little to no mechanisms or efforts exist, to spread this increased awareness and capacity among the employees of the cantonal offices in general and many of the benefits of the participation in the climate strategy remain limited to the directly involved people.

Horizontal Governance: Intra-, inter-institutional and broader The development and implementation of the cantonal climate strategy Grisons included 13 cantonal offices and department covering all sectors relevant to the anticipated impacts of climate change in Grisons. While the adaptation strategy of the federal council was heavily consulted in the conception phase of cantonal climate strategy, no actors from the national level were directly involved at any stage of the cantonal climate strategy. Neither were any actors from the local level nor was there any possibility for participation of non-government actors. The cantonal climate strategy was and is strictly a strategy by and for the cantonal offices and departments. However, as is often the case, a successful implementation will necessitate the participation of actors who are active on a local level. Thus, one big success factor for the strategy is the ability of the various involved sectors to reach actors on the local level. Sectors that have strong networks in place to reach such actors have a big advantage in this regard. For example, the office for agriculture and geo-information cultivates an open and direct exchange with many farmers and is thus well able to keep farmers informed about new adaptation and mitigation options and convince them of their benefits. Meanwhile, the department for forests and natural hazards directly employs foresters working on a local level and thus it also has a very direct connection it can use to change practices on the local level. On the other hand, offices without such strong, direct networks to the local level are largely limited to conducting awareness raising measures and waiting for actors from the local level to approach them. Due to the principle of subsidiarity, it is politically infeasible or at least very difficult to try and force the local level to act via new legislation on the cantonal level. Thus, not only the personal interests and motives of important stakeholders within the cantonal offices are an important success factor for the implementation of the strategy, but also the personal interests, motives and initiative of local actors. This is demonstrated by the fact, that some of the most visible adaptation measures conducted within Grisons in the last year were initiated by the federal pilot program adaptation. Conclusions

The cantonal climate strategy was quite thorough and successful in including all relevant sectors. However, the strategy is explicitly a strategy by and for the cantonal offices and departments, meaning that no other actors, beyond the experts employed by the cantonal offices for this very job, had any meaningful opportunity to participate in the development of the strategy. At the same time, the climate strategy does not dictate any specific mandates or tasks to actors beyond the cantonal offices and departments either. Such a thing would have been very difficult to legitimize politically due to the importance of the principle of subsidiarity within the Swiss system.

As a result, while the development process of the climate strategy certainly wasn’t a bottom-up process, it wasn’t exactly a top-down process either. In this way the cantonal climate strategy mirrors the adaptation strategy of the federal council, which was primarily a strategy by and for federal institutions. However, the

implementation of the cantonal climate strategy largely depends on the local level, as climate change adaptation must be fitted to local needs and circumstances. As such, one big success factor going forward will be how able the cantonal offices and departments are at translating the strategy into action on the local level.

Annex Interview Guide This interview guide includes questions that were mostly relevant to WP1, blocks 6-8 are primarily geared toward WP2.

1. Role of the interviewee (or person addressed in other formats) 1) What is or was your role during the planning phase of the strategy/project/measure? 2) What is or was your role during the implementation of the strategy/project/measure? 2. Project goals 1) What are / were the concrete goals of the strategy/project/measure? 2) To what extent have these goals been achieved? a. How was goal achievement evaluated? 3. Development of measures 1) How were possible implementation measures developed? a. To what extent are measures implemented via existing mechanisms and instruments? b. To what extent are measures implemented through the introduction of new mechanisms and instruments? 2) How were measures selected/prioritized for implementation? 3) How can members of the private sector or NGOs take part in the implementation process? a. How is the communication/cooperation between members of the private sector or NGOs and the public sector organized? 4) Do you agree that adaptation has so far been primarily implemented via individual local projects? Please explain your answer. 5) Do you agree that new laws and decrees are necessary to promote adaptation to climate change? Please explain your answer. 4. Interactions with other institutional levels 1) With what members of the public sector from different sectors or levels of the public sector were you in contact/did you collaborate during the planning and implementation phases of the strategy/project/measure? a. What was the exchange/the collaboration with these people like? b. Were you satisfied with the exchange with these people? What went especially well? What went rather badly? 2) Who is responsible for organizing the exchange and possible cooperation with regard to climate change adaptation between different branches and levels of the public sector?

a. How does this actor handle his charge? Are you satisfied with his performance? Where do you see potential for improvement? b. In case there is no specific actor who is in charge of coordination: How does coordination and cooperation between different branches and levels of the public sector work? Where do you see potential for improvement? Do you think there should be an actor responsible for coordinating it? 5. Drivers & Barriers 1) Which factors have pushed or impeded the planning of the strategy/project/measure? a. Which of these factors do you think were especially important and why? b. Can you name one concrete example? c. How could these factors be optimally utilized or overcome? What are important lessons for the future? 2) Which factors have pushed or impeded the implementation of the strategy/ project/measure? a. Which of these factors do you think were especially important and why? b. Can you name one concrete example? c. How could these factor be optimally utilized or overcome? What are important lessons for the future? 3) How do drivers and barriers influence the selection of measures for implementation? 6. Awareness and capacity of the people involved in the climate strategy 1) Who in your office is included in the implementation of the climate strategy and what do they do? 2) How would you assess the awareness and capacity of climate change adaptation of these people? 3) What measures have been conducted to increase the awareness and capacity of the people? a. How effective were those measures? 7. Coherency 1) How does the climate strategy influence the work of your office? a. How does it influence the day-to-day work of an average cantonal employee? b. What conflicts of interest exist between the goals of the climate strategy and your sectoral objectives? i. How do you handle these conflicts of interest? c. What possible synergies exist between the goals of the climate strategy and your sectoral objectives?

i. How are these synergies utilized? 2) Can you name some examples of cases when you were either very successful or failed spec- tacularly in integrating the goals of the climate strategy with your sectoral objectives? a. What were the main reasons for this success/problem?

8. Involvement of non-government actors 1) How are non-government actors affected by the climate strategy or its implementation? 2) How are/were non-government actors included in the development/implementation of the climate strategy? a. What options exist to integrate bottom-up initiatives in the adaptation process? b. Do you think the implementation process could profit by a stronger inclusion of the non-government sector? c. How does the climate strategy pursue a stronger inclusion of the non-government sector?

9. Outlook 1) How do you think the project will evolve? What will/did happen after the project is/was finished? What long-term consequences do you expect or hope for? 2) If you could start all over again, what would you do differently? What important lessons can be gained for future projects?

List of interviewees Name Institution Caflisch Michael Cantonal Department of Economy and Tourism Grisons Calonder Gian Paul Environmental Agency Davos Casanova Esther Esther Casanova Spatial Development Corporation Feltscher Markus Buildings Insurance Grisons Giezendanner Urs Regional Development Agency Surselva Hefti Reto Cantonal Department for Forests and Natural Hazards Grisons Luzi Valentin Cantonal Office for Agriculture and Geo-Information Grisons Müller Dieter Association Parc Ela Stöckli Veronika Bergwelten 21 Corporation Thomann Georg Cantonal Office for Nature and the Environment Grisons