The Role of Local Institutions in Adaptation to Climate Change

Climate change will be pivotal in redefining development in the twenty-first century. How nations, societies, communities, and households respond to the impacts of climate changes and variability to which the world has already been committed will in many instances determine their prospects for growth, equity, and sustainability. Given the potential magnitude of impending changes in institutional and social relationships, the gaps in current knowledge about the role of institutions in adapting to climate change are remarkably large. This review focuses on the role of local institutions in adaptation to climate change. It does so under the belief that climate impacts will affect disadvantaged social groups more disproportionately, and that local institutions centrally influence how different social groups gain access to and are able to use assets and resources. It suggests that adaptation to climate change is inevitably local and that institutions influence adaptation and climate vulnerability in three critical ways: a) they structure impacts and vulnerability, b) they mediate between individual and collective responses to climate impacts and thereby shape outcomes