Changes in weather patterns due to climate change, such as increased precipitation intensity and hotter and dryer summers, are already occurring despite efforts to reduce emissions. Climate adaptation (CA) is a crucial method to deal with these effects of climate change. An example of an endorsed CA measure is in increasing and improving urban green space (UGS). The Dutch government aims to promote participation and stimulate citizen action, but municipalities have not adopted this outlook on citizen action yet. An example of such actions are Green Citizen Initiatives (GCIs), which are valued by municipalities because of the creation of public value in non-state and non-market ways, contributing to CA by creating and improving UGS. Municipalities can facilitate these initiatives by maintaining ownership of the initiative and UGS with the initiators, whilst steering and supporting the process and providing resources. Recent literature has identified barriers that affect the process of realising GCIs. It showed that there is no clear, common or singular approach employed by municipalities to facilitate GCIs. Therefore, this thesis aims to provide insights into the process of realising GCIs and the barriers municipalities and initiators face to improve facilitation of GCIs. This is achieved by answering the following main research question: How can Dutch municipalities facilitate green citizen initiatives to contribute to local climate adaptation?

The process of facilitating GCIs was defined from the perspective of GCI initiators based on literature, including the following five phases; Gathering Support, Gathering Resources, Design, Execution and Maintenance. After each phase a moment of evaluation should take place to decide if returning to an earlier phase is needed. Semi-structured interviews and a card-sort were used to gather practical data on this process. Thematic analysis of this data revealed eight key barriers. Recommendations to mitigate these barriers were identified, with which the Citizen Empowerment for Climate Adaptation (CEfCA) framework was developed. Municipalities can apply this framework to reduce the negative effects of the barriers and increase the number of successful GCIs for CA. This framework was validated by an expert discussion with a participant from front running municipality Arnhem, that currently already actively facilitates GCIs.

This thesis attempts to fill the gap in scientific literature on how GCIs are facilitated and how to improve this in practice. The CEfCA-framework provides recommendations to improve the process of realising GCIs, but a change in attitude towards CA with instead of for citizens may be needed to effectively implement the proposed framework. Further research is recommended on how this systemic change in outlook can be achieved.