Climate Resilience and Policy Transfer in Semarang City, Indonesia

Abstract

Cities around the world are facing tremendous challenges due to climate change. Tropical cities are significantly impacted by temperature increases, higher than average global rising sea levels, and extreme weather events. In the tropical Asia-Pacific region effects from the El Niño-Southern Oscillation are especially severe, which, in turn, cause disasters such as floods and droughts. Climate change requires cooperation from actors across geopolitical borders to respond to the problem collectively, which involves global networks in the exchange of climate mitigation policies and adaptation plans through a process of policy transfer. This paper examines the processes of policy transfer between the tropical coastal city of Semarang in Indonesia and its global networks in the ‘100 Resilient Cities’, and the ‘Water as Leverage’ programs. The paper analyses interviews with actors and stakeholders from these two programs, and examines key factors that determine the success of the climate change policy transfer in Semarang City.