ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the development of national climate politics. The objective of stabilising global greenhouse gas concentrations through global climate mitigation has been described as a global ‘tragedy of the commons’. Historically viewed, the thematic development of the European discourse on climate change resembles its global counterpart, as the European Union (EU) itself focused initially on climate-mitigation measures. In order to understand the political–administrative context of climate-knowledge internalisation processes, the chapter looks at its historical construction in the research area. By contrast, the EU has been able to formulate more extensive targets for climate mitigation, promoting concrete strategies such as sufficiency, efficiency, and consistency. In September 2014, the national government adopted a so-called ‘Climate Agenda’ with the subtitle ‘Resilient, Prosperous and Green’ in order to be able to implement the targets of the ‘energy accord’ at the national level. Climate-adaptation discourse also gained momentum in the Netherlands during the first decade of the new millennium.
