The Challenges to the Implementation of EU Innovative Climate Adaptation Policies

Abstract

The increasing recurrence of natural disasters heightens the pressure on public authorities to deliver effective solutions. Institutions, however, often face technical limitations with existing tools and thus turn to innovations: an example and typical case study is the EU’s Destination Earth (DestinE) initiative. This thesis investigates the barriers to its implementation, merging literatures on public sector innovation (PSI) and European governance to create a preliminary conceptual framework comprising of possible barriers. I compare and contrast these theoretical insights with the findings I have obtained through interviews and documents I have analysed, ultimately producing a revised and original conceptual framework. Despite DestinE’s technological nature, this dissertation reveals that its challenges are primarily non-technological but rooted in the misapplication of private-sector innovation logics within a public-sector context. These dynamics generate a high prevalence of interaction-based barriers, suggesting that DestinE is best understood as a hybrid administrative-technological innovation. The study contributes to debates on EU governance, namely on its legitimacy issues and innovation capacity, as well as to debates on PSI, offering new data on overlooked fields.