Understanding Climate Adaptation Actions

Climate change will unavoidably increase the occurrence and severity of naturalhazards. Adaptation to climate change, the process of adjustment to reduce or avoid negative impacts from climate, is therefore increasingly important. To design effective policies, it is critical to identify which psychological factors are most strongly associated with individuals' adaptation to climate change. This paper reviews the literature on climate change adaptation and assesses the correlates of adaptive behaviour via a series of meta-analyses. We identified 11 different variables that relate to climate change adaptation (risk perception, outcome efficacy, self-efficacy, place attachment, trust, climate change perceptions, negative affect, experience, responsibility, knowledge, social norms). Results suggest that outcome efficacy and self-efficacy are most strongly correlated with adaptation. Several moderators were identified that influence the strength of the relationships between the psychological variables and adaptation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed