Climate adaptation policy lock-ins

Key research questions

  1. To what extent is climate change adaptation in selected policy areas subject to lock-in dynamics?
  2. How do lock-in dynamics form, persist and evolve over time? 
  3. What types of lock-in dynamics are present? How do these compare across different policy areas and countries?
  4. How can an understanding of lock-in dynamics inform ‘unlocking strategies’ to better enable climate change adaptation? 

By tackling these questions, our research will advance the conceptual and theoretical understanding of lock-ins in the context of climate change adaptation. In turn, our findings will help inform recommendations for overcoming lock-in dynamics in cases where they are found to be problematic, as well as the design and implementation of adaptation policies in the future.