Porter James J, Dessai Suraje, Tompkins Emma L
Sustainability Research Institute and ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT UK.
Sustainability Research Institute and ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT UK ; Geography & Environment, University of Southampton, (Highfield Campus), Southampton, SO17 1BJ UK.
Clim Change. 2014;127(2):371-379. doi: 10.1007/s10584-014-1252-7. Epub 2014 Sep 18.
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 when it is in their interest to do so. How, and to what extent, households are able to do this remains unclear. Like other developed countries, research on UK adaptation has focused predominately on public and private organisations. To fill that gap, a systematic literature 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 traditional reactive coping responses. Of concern is that these 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. While low-cost, low-skill coping responses were already being implemented, the adoption of more permanent physical measures, behavioural changes, and acceptance of new responsibilities are unlikely to happen autonomously without further financial or government support. If public policy on household adaptation to climate change is to be better informed than more high-quality empirical research is urgently needed.
英国政府的首个国家适应计划旨在打造一个“气候适应型社会”，使其能够做出明智且有远见的决策，以应对气候变化带来的风险和机遇，在这种情况下，预计个体家庭会在符合自身利益时进行适应。然而，家庭如何以及在何种程度上能够做到这一点仍不明确。与其他发达国家一样，英国关于适应的研究主要集中在公共和私人组织上。为填补这一空白，我们进行了系统的文献综述，以了解英国家庭针对气候变化已经采取或预期会采取哪些行动；是什么驱动或阻碍了这些行动；以及家庭是否会自主行动。我们发现，英国家庭难以建立长期适应能力，并且依赖传统的被动应对方式。令人担忧的是，这些应对方式对某些气候风险（如洪水）效果较差；从长期来看成本更高；并且无法培养家庭适应其他压力的能力。虽然已经在实施低成本、低技能的应对方式，但如果没有进一步的财政或政府支持，采用更永久性的物理措施、行为改变以及接受新责任不太可能自主发生。如果要使关于家庭适应气候变化的公共政策更加明智，那么迫切需要更多高质量的实证研究。
