ABSTRACT
Climate change requires action across all scales and between all actors within society. Adapting to the impacts of climate change, for example, involves more than individual responses or solely government intervention. Many potential synergies between government and citizens to adapt effectively to projected risks and in response to hazards fail to be harnessed. The role of government action to protect vulnerable citizens forms a social contract for climate risks. This chapter presents evidence on how expectations of such social contracts affect individual behaviour. Specifically, it examines the perceptions of government action held by citizens in their decision to take actions themselves. A study of 360 households across Ireland and England shows the response of government and citizens to a severe flood event. Survey results show that perception of government intent and procedural legitimacy mattered for the willingness of affected householders to take adaptive action, in this case to flood-proof their homes. In England, where government response was judged to be fair in distribution and procedure, householders were willing to take action themselves. In Ireland, where government response was deemed to be unfair procedurally, householders were themselves unwilling to take adaptive action. The study highlights the importance of deliberative planning for adaptation to ensure representation and voice, but also to enable active private action for the adaptation. Hence we demonstrate the need for a proactive state, with capacity across adaptation and resource risks as well as decarbonisation policies, in meeting the challenge of climate change.
