| dc.description.abstract | Adaption to climate change has become a topical issue within public administration. Global temperatures are on course for a 2,3 to 4,6-degree Celsius rise this century. An increasingly wilder and wetter climate will have adverse impacts on Norwegian municipalities. Several voices claim that society should start preparing for future climate change, and that this should be implemented at all levels of public administration. This thesis focuses on climate change issues from a social science perspective. The thesis investigates which factors that contributes to the political agenda-setting of climate change adaption in two medium sized Norwegian municipalities. To answer this question, John Kingdon`s multiple-streams approach is used as a framework. The framework sees that policies can be created by joining together problems, policies and politics, all of which are seen as decision aspects in a policy process. The thesis identifies key elements in this process through a data collection consisting of semi-structured interviews with seven informants from Kvam herad and Osterøy municipality, as well as a document review. The findings establish that recurring events of floods and landslides supplemented by a national focus on the adverse effects of climate change and consensus politics within the municipalities, have facilitated ensuring the problem`s attention in both municipalities. Additionaly, dedicated municipal planners and municipality membership in climate change knowledge networks has proved to bring climate change adaption on the political agenda. These factors prove to be outweigh the fact that the problem`s solutions are costly and require great technological and administrative capacity. The findings can be seen as a contribution to the study of human actions in political decision-making processes and may be relevant for municipalities in similar situations. | en_US |
