ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the similarities and differences in actors’ climate-change vulnerability constructions, and the factors that contribute to systematic differences. With regard to vulnerability constructions, the results thus indicate regional differences in the distribution of climate cultures, particularly between Poland and the older European Union countries under consideration. The chapter examines the degree to which physical impacts of climate change such as land loss, flood, heatwaves, or storms are seen as short- or long-term problems for coastal cities and communities in the research area. The Oder-Neisse appears as a climate-culture boundary, as the proportion of actors on the Polish side who view climate change with scepticism, or who see it as a problem of little consequence, is markedly higher than in the west European countries. The actors were surveyed about how they perceived climate change as a problem in general. In evaluating climate change as a general problem, commonalities and differences were discernible according to field affiliation and national background.
