Abstract

This paper exposes missing interconnections between the urban, national
and international scales in the analysis of climate adaptation policy and
territorial governance in the United Kingdom (UK). Drawing upon the
results of interviews with adaptation stakeholders in seven UK cityregions,
it examines: (i) the increasing discursive alignment of the
‘urban’ and the ‘national’ in international climate adaptation policy and
decision-making processes; and (ii) 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.