How to develop strategies of adaptation to climate change based on a foresight exercise?

Abstract

Context and purpose of the study ‐ Prospective studies raise a real intellectual interest for those who contribute to them or take cognizance of it. But they are often considered too difficult to operationalize, and most of the prospective exercises are not followed by action plans, particularly at value chain level. To overcome this difficulty in linking the work of experts and the decisions of stakeholder of value chains, a particular effort was made to operationalize the outcomes from a prospective study on the French vine and wine industry in the context of climate change. The approach consisted in collecting and using the feed‐back of professionalsfrom the wine industry about these outcomes to feed a strategic think‐tank and thus allow decision‐makers of the industry “to come back to the present, better equipped to influence it according to [their] intentions and [ their] requirements “(Sébillotte, 2002).

Material and methods ‐ From 2014 to 2016, a foresight exercise was carried out within the framework of the Laccave project, and permitted to design 4 adaptation strategies to climate change (conservative, innovative, nomadic, liberal) and to describe the paths leading to them (Aigrain et al. , 2017). In 2017, six participatory seminars were organized in the main French wine regions: Bordeaux / Cognac, Champagne, Burgundy, Languedoc, Rhône Valley and Alsace. During each of them, between 60 and 100 stakeholders of the industry were invited to discuss in small groups about the issues and consequences of each proposed strategy. Then, they were asked to identify the desirable or threatening nature of these strategies and to make proposals for actions that could promote or prevent their occurrence. All information collected was recorded in the form of verbatim (Aigrain et al., 2018).

Results ‐ From these participatory workshops, the majority favored the development of technical innovations in order to maintain the current location of French vineyards and the value associated with them, while questioning the limits to keep the specificity of each appellation. The positioning vis‐à‐vis the conservative strategy is variable and depends on the regions. The appearance of new viticultural zones is concerning and represents a point of vigilance for the participants. The treatment of these numerous contributions is currently fueling the construction, in France, of a national strategy to adapt the vine and wine sector to climate change