Rethinking urban adaptation as a scalar geopolitics of climate governance: climate policy in the devolved territories of the UK

This paper exposes missing interconnections between the urban, national and international scales in the analysis of climate adaptation policy and territorial governance in the UK. Drawing upon the results of interviews with adaptation stakeholders in seven UK city-regions, it examines: (1) the increasing discursive alignment of the ‘urban’ and the ‘national’ in international climate adaptation policy and decision-making processes; and (2) the contradictions between urban and national climate policy discourses across the UK devolved territories. The paper identifies and accounts for an emergent scalar geopolitics of climate adaptation governance as urban climate actions and knowledges are enrolled in the UK state’s efforts to respond to broader international climate governance and policy imperatives. We call for further research on how adaptation knowledge is geopolitically mobilized at different scales of climate governance.