Are homeowners willing to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change?

Abstract

The need to adapt to climate change impacts, whilst simultaneously limiting greenhouse gas emissions, requires that the government's efforts are joined by public action. In England and Wales, housing contributes significantly to the emissions and many properties are at risk of flooding. This paper investigates the preparedness of homeowners in England and Wales to make changes to their homes in response to the predicted effects of climate change. A telephone survey of 961 homeowners investigated their interest in purchasing mitigation and adaptation improvements against their concern about climate change, awareness of flood risk and attribution of responsibility for action. Whilst the majority of homes had some energy-saving improvements, few were found to have property-level flood protection. The high levels of awareness about climate change and flooding were coupled with the perception of risks as low. Whilst some respondents accepted personal responsibility for action, most believed that the authorities were responsible for flood protection, and would not pay the costs required to make their home more energy-efficient and better prepared for the eventuality of floods. The results suggest that there is scope for further improvement of energy-saving measures, and that the levels of adoption of flood-protection measures are very low. Multi-faceted strategies, including more effective communication of risks and responsibilities, incentives, and material support for the poorest, will need to be developed to overcome the current reluctance by homeowners to invest in flood-protection measures and further energy conservation solutions in the future.

Raising risk preparedness by flood risk communication

“…Strong reliance on public authorities may weaken individual motivation to take action but it may make it more likely that the target population will take information provided seriously. There is strong agreement with the view that risk communication is a means of increasing preparedness (Botzen et al, 2009a;Höppner et al, 2012) and previous studies provide insights into the factors that can influence mitigation behaviour, but findings are often ambiguous, and so general conclusions about the effect of risk communication on hazard preparedness cannot yet be drawn. Clarification is required on the extent to which risk awareness and other influences such as knowledge, emotions, or personal experience influence an individual's decision to take protective actions or not.…”

“…Most studies on risk awareness have shown that survey participants are seldom concerned about natural hazards, and their level of preparedness appears to be correspondingly low (Botzen et al, 2009a;Bubeck et al, 2013;Birkholz et al, 2014;Terpstra et al, 2009;Siegrist and Gutscher, 2006;Siegrist, 2013;Thieken et al, 2007;Wachinger et al, 2013;Wagner, 2007). This supports the assumption that there is a relationship between risk awareness and mitigation behaviour.…”

“…responsibility and trust. Apart from experience and emotions, the perceived responsibility of authorities was also found to influence individual risk preparedness in several studies (Botzen et al, 2009a;O'Sullivan et al, 2012;Eiser et al, 2012) although Terpstra et al (2006) found no such correlation. Their results indicate that the influence of perceived responsibility on preparedness is a matter of citizens' trust in their government, and the degree to which citizens trust governments varies according to political and cultural circumstances.…”

The impact of flood action groups on the uptake of flood management measures

“…Some studies have found a minor contribution of risk perception (Bubeck et al 2013, Koerth et al 2013) while others observe a strong link between increased risk perception and increased uptake of measures (Miceli et al 2008, Bichard and Kazmierczak 2012, Osberghaus 2015. Due to the different formulation of risk it is challenging to compare the results across studies.…”

“…Yet practical experience suggests that households do not necessarily implement adaptation measures in order to increase their resilience to flooding (Kunreuther 1996, Peek and Mileti 2002, Bichard and Kazmierczak 2012. Research addressing household decision-making on flood prevention provides limited insights into the communication of flood risk (Dawson et al 2011, Meyer et al 2012, Kellens et al 2013.…”