What do we know about UK household adaptation to climate change? A systematic review

Abstract

The UK Government’s first National Adaptation Programme seeks to create a ‘climate-ready society’ capable of making well-informed and far-sighted decisions to address risks and opportunities posed by a changing climate, where individual households are expected to adapt if it is in their interest to do so. How, and to what extent, households are able to adapt to a changing climate remains unclear. Like other developed countries, research on UK adaptation has focused predominately on public and private organisations. To fill that gap, a systematic review was conducted to understand what actions UK households have taken in response to, or in anticipation of, a changing climate; what drives or impedes these actions; and whether households will act autonomously. We found that UK households struggle to build long-term adaptive capacity and are reliant upon intuitive reactive coping responses. That split is concerning because coping responses are less effective for some climate risks (e.g. flooding); cost more over the long-term; and fail to create household capacity to adapt to other stresses. Low-cost, low-skill coping responses were already being implemented whereas he adoption of more permanent physical measures, behavioural changes and acceptance of new responsibilities are unlikely to occur autonomously without financial or further government support. If public policy on household adaptation to climate change is to be better informed, more high-quality empirical research is urgently needed

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Emma L. Tompkins: orcid.org/0000-0002-4825-9797

Catalogue record

Export record