Adaptation to climate change in small German municipalities: Sparse knowledge and weak adaptive capacities

Abstract Understanding local adaptation to climate change is critical for the overall success of adaptation practices in Europe and around the world. Although it becomes more urgent by the day, existing literature does not adequately touch upon the topic of climate adaptation in small municipalities. This article addresses this gap. It explores whether adaptation measures in small municipalities are overlooked in research focused on other aspects of urban environment, or whether such measures are indeed inadequate. Based on a large quantitative survey among Bavarian municipalities ( n = 401), we conducted 11 qualitative case studies to answer the following two questions. First, how active are small municipalities in Bavaria, Germany, in climate change adaptation? Second, why and how do municipal adaptation frontrunners implement adaptation measures and what lessons can we learn from their experience? Our findings confirm that small municipalities rarely adapt to climate change, and when they do, their actions usually target water‐related issues. Most often measures are responsive and pragmatic, instead of being preventive and transformative. The fact that the small municipality representatives that we have interviewed were not able to distinguish between adaptation and mitigation measures clearly illustrates the lack of local adaptation capacities. We conclude that national funding for municipal adaptation coordinators or networks is a promising way to improve local capacities.