The absence of clear signals from the Norwegian state concerning climate change adaptation provides an opportunity to investigate why some municipalities have addressed adaptation to climate change while others have not. Although difficulties associated with implementing adaptation to climate change are well documented, less is known about those individuals who take the lead. On the basis of in-depth interviews and interaction with eight Norwegian municipalities that have begun working with climate adaptation, we examine how climate adaptation has been added to the local agenda. We find that adaptation planning has progressed more in those municipalities where officials are engaged and actively seeking external expertise and support. We conclude that, without a clearer national adaptation policy and greater resource allocation and legislation, adaptation to climate change within Norwegian municipalities is unlikely to progress further.

The backdrop for this study is the Norwegian national Svalbard policy, with long-term goals to transition Svalbard into a sustainable future without coal and to maintain Norwegian presence. Tourism, education and research are the three economic pillars. This transition affects the tourism industry, spatial planners, environmental officials, local politicians, port authorities and research community in Longyearbyen. We apply an adaptation framework and a community-based approach to analyse the multiple layers of change identified by key stakeholders: climate change, national policy and increasing tourism. Based on semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in Longyearbyen and document review we analysed the adaptation strategies and measures to address the challenges and opportunities from the economic transition sectors, climate change impacts, national Svalbard policies and increasing tourism activities. Adaptation dilemmas emerge for Longyearbyen: 1) increased tourism is a national goal while strict environmental management restricts its potential tourism operators, and 2) climate change creates hazardous conditions which require the local spatial planners to develop new safe housing areas, but the strict environmental protection limits the action space. A tension is therefore emerging between the national policy context (The Svalbard Treaty, The Svalbard Act, The Environmental Protection Act) which governs development and local adaptation options to address climate change impacts and increasing tourism.

This commentary introduces a methodology and theoretical framework for studying how the tourism industry might balance the competing demands of economic growth and environmental governance. We focus on the “balancing act” Svalbard tourism industry must play among sometimes competing demands of climate change mitigation and emissions from tourism, and of strict Norwegian environmental management policy and demands for increased tourism. While these are specific to Svalbard, the balancing act of competing needs is the core challenge of the UN Sustainability Goals giving this research global and pan-Arctic relevance. Through collaboration between two tourism organisations, the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO) and Visit Svalbard and an interdisciplinary team of scientists, we will co-produce knowledge about how to innovate new opportunities while protecting the wilderness, the very backbone of tourism. This collaboration considers how policy, climate change, and local attitudes together may affect the tourism industry and helps to define and develop sustainable tourism operations and products. For instance, tourists may participate in environmental and community-related activities or “micro safaris” rather than a sole focus on charismatic megafauna. Policy discussions about tourism growth need to consider how local and national governments anticipate and navigate rapid social, political, and environmental changes.

Living with avalanche risk and road closures is part of everyday life for many communities in avalanche prone areas. This paper illustrates the interplay and dynamics of adaptive capacity and social capital through locally developed adaptation strategies to avalanche risk in two case areas in Northern Norway. Social capital includes empirically derived categories that are often connected to adaptation research: social networks and trust, place attachment, local and experiential knowledge, engaged individuals and perception of risk. These play a significant role in activating adaptive capacity, which results in adaptation strategies. The paper illustrates how adaptive capacity and resulting adaptation are outcomes of interacting, rather than individual, attributes of social capital. The adaptation strategies align in three broad categories: preparedness, flexible arrangements and influencing decision-makers. The paper shows that the communities demonstrate high adaptive capacity to deal with risk and that social capital plays a role in ensuring and shaping such capacity. However, there are significant costs associated with adaptation strategies aimed at sustaining the functions of everyday life and critical services. Such costs are relatively similar in the case areas and include limited mobility and participation in social activities, economic losses and the potential for failure to deliver health services, but they manifest in different degrees in each case study. The paper underlines the importance of the local context, which is critical for understanding both the impacts of natural hazards, such as avalanche and the socio-political contexts, which may either enable or hinder activation of adaptive capacity and adaptation strategies.