What Kind of Leadership Do We Need for Climate Adaptation? A Framework for Analyzing Leadership Objectives,Functions,and Tasks in Climate Change Adaptation

This paper explores the relevance of various leadership concepts for climate change adaptation. After defning four main leadership challenges which are derived from the key characteristics of climate adaptation issues, a review of modern leadership theories addressing these challenges is presented. On the basis of this review we develop an integrative framework for analyzing leadership for climate change adaptation. It distinguishes between various leadership functions which together contribute to climate change adaptation: the political—administrative, adaptive, enabling, connective, and dissemination functions. Each function requires the execution of specific leadership tasks which can be performed by different types of leaders, such as positional leaders, ideational leaders, sponsors, boundary workers, policy entrepreneurs, or champions. The framework can be used to analyze or monitor the emergence and realization of specific leadership functions and to specify the need for strengthening particular functions in practices of climate adaptation.