Now, from rainwater harvesting to waste segregation, more and more households are reshaping their daily routines and work practices to create a more sustainable future. While these concerned communities continue to drive change on the frontlines, their institutional allies aren't being nearly as sincere, research has found.
As inspiring as household change may be, big businesses and industries remain the major contributors to
However, a new study has found that governments often take a backseat to these matters, preferring to plan and finance climate change adaptation measures such as incentivising green infrastructure. This rang true even in areas where the government was more involved than usual.
“Individuals are primarily focused on changing what they can control: their own behaviours,” said co-author Elphin Tom Joe. “That’s needed, but so is action from institutional actors who can coordinate more broadly impactful adaptation.”
Across the globe, individuals and households were doing the most to adapt to climate change on average compared to their governments, the study found. The divide tended to widen further in rural areas, but the trend somehow reversed in high-resource urban areas.
However, even in high-income countries such as the United States or the UK, the government primarily suggested mere guidance on climate adaptation actions. Ultimately, it fell upon the individual to switch to more sustainable practices, such as picking flood-prevention measures or drought-resilient seeds. For the not-so-well-off, this can be at great personal and financial cost that they might not be able to manage effectively.
Shifting the outdoor working hours to cooler parts of the day might seem like a small change, but it can mean reduced business and a greater burden on the worker's health. Additionally, the authors worry that such individual change, while undoubtedly inspiring, still does little to spur the quintessential institutional change that is needed to create tangible results.
“In rural areas, especially in
The findings of this research have been published in Nature Climate Change and can be accessed here.