Paradoxes of Public Participation in Climate Change Governance

Abstract Participation in climate governance is a wicked problem. Determining who participates and how is wicked, tricky, and even aggressive. The wicked dimensions of climate change—the difficulties of problem definition and no stopping rule, in particular—require rethinking how to best govern efforts toward adaptation and mitigation. Participatory spaces are not neutral: they are created for multiple purposes, providing opportunities for agency and inclusion but also exclusion and hierarchy. Following the logic of wicked problems that requires attention to paradoxes, I identify several paradoxes of participation in climate change governance that need to be considered in the design of public participation. These paradoxes demand attention rather than erasure if we seek better answers to the fundamental questions of who gets to participate in climate change adaptation and how.