Opportunities for individual, household and community level climate change adaptation in Ireland

This is a working paper commissioned by the Climate Change Advisory Council of Ireland. It highlights the opportunities for influencing or enabling individual, household and community level adaptation. Literature on climate change adaptation tends to focus on the role of government and state action, with less attention given to the potential role of individuals, households and local communities in adapting to climate change risks. This lacuna overlooks the necessity of a ‘whole-of-society’ approach to adaptation to complement a whole-of-government response. However, while individual, household and community adaptation are a necessary response to climate change, adaptation-beyond-the-state raises some ethical issues that should be fully explored, as the outcomes of placing more responsibility at individual or community level may be uneven. So while fully engaging with individuals and communities may be an efficient use of (limited) state resources, any resultant adaptation actions must also be legitimate, effective, robust and lead to just outcomes.