Adaptive Governance and sub-national Climate Change Policy: A comparative analysis of Khyber Pukhtunkhawa and Punjab Provinces in Pakistan

Abstract

This study explores the adaptive governance and effective implementation of climate policies at the subnational level in a developing country context. We focused on Pakistan as our central case as it is considered one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and has also gone through a recent governance devolution process. This study is conduced to investigate climate governance at subnational level in Pakistan by looking at the province of Punjab and Khyber Pukhtunkhawah (KPK). We employ the Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework for this study. The framework as methodology is important to uncover the complexity of adaptive governance at subnational level after devolution and transformation of environmental institutions in Pakistan. Different aspects of governance such as engagement of local actors, activism of political leadership, awareness campaigns, and capacity building are the notable initiatives in the provinces. The study identifies the differences of initiatives in these provinces are manifest in subnational climate change policy differentiation, research capacity and institutional maturity. The study finds that the provincial government of the KPK follows more participatory and decentralized approach while Punjab is more centralized. The IAD framework provided an effective means of understanding these complex differences in outcome and scale.