Rättvis klimatanpassning i Stockholms stad

Sammanfattning

Climate change increasingly affects urban areas through heatwaves, flooding and extreme weather events, while previous research shows that these impacts disproportionately affect vulnerable and marginalized groups. Therefore, integrating justice into climate adaptation planning has become an increasingly important issue in both research and policy. This study analyzes how four justice dimen sions (recognitional, distributive, procedural and restorative justice) are integrated into Stockholm City’s climate adaptation work. The aim is to investigate how the justice dimensions are understood and implemented in practice, as well as to identify challenges and opportunities related to equitable and just climate adaptation. This is achieved through an analysis of eight policy documents from the City of Stockholm using the Adaptation Justice Index (AJI) framework developed by Juhola et al. (2022). The study is further complemented by four semi-structured interviews with municipal officials working with climate adaptation. The results show that procedural justice is the most strongly inte grated dimension in Stockholm City’s climate adaptation work, particularly through emphasis on stakeholder dialogue, cooperation and citizen participation. Recognitional justice is also relatively well integrated, especially regarding the identification of vulnerable groups and unequal exposure to cli mate risks such as heatwaves. Distributive justice is less developed, particularly concerning the distri bution of costs and the evaluation of negative impacts from adaptation measures. Restorative justice is the least integrated dimension, although some elements related to compensation and redistribution of resources can be identified in more recent policy documents. The interviews reveal that Stockholm City has a strong ambition to integrate justice into climate adaptation, but that practical implementa tion is challenged by organizational complexity, unclear definitions of justice and vulnerability, limited coordination, and political and institutional constraints. At the same time, the study highlights significant opportunities through increased knowledge, data integration, collaboration and the city’s strong institutional capacity. This study contributes to environmental science by providing empirical insights into how justice theories are translated into practical climate adaptation governance at the municipal level. The findings may support future development of equitable climate adaptation strategies both in Stockholm and in other municipalities.