People and Climate: How Social Infrastructure Powers Adaptation. That’s the title of a new publication by the WRR and publisher Springer. It is the English translation of the report Mens en klimaat: de kracht van sociale infrastructuur bij adaptatie, which the WRR released in mid-2025. Although the WRR focused primarily on the Dutch context in this report, the analysis is also relevant to other countries.
Image: © WRR
Social infrastructure boosts climate resilience
In the report People and Climate, the WRR argues that the Netherlands becomes more climate-resilient when the government not only implements physical measures but also invests in social infrastructure: fostering mutual care, increasing interpersonal trust, and providing people with a sense of agency and options for action.
The Dutch people are facing a changing climate. Increased heat, drought, heavy rainfall, and rising sea levels can disrupt society. The impact of a climate event extends beyond material damage and casualties. In the worst-case scenario, people lose trust in the government and each other, communities become fragmented, and poverty rises. A climate event can therefore have both physical and social consequences.
Conversely, the social context partly determines how well people can cope with climate events. Those with a strong network or sufficient resources are generally less likely to run into trouble and tend to recover more quickly. Dutch adaptation policy pays insufficient attention to these social factors; the focus lies on physical protection measures. While these are essential, they are not enough.
The Research for Policy series
People and Climate: How Social Infrastructure Powers Adaptation is the 15th tittle to come out in the so-called Springer Series. In this series, which started some seven years ago, the WRR publishes research relevant to international society. Like previous publications in this series, People and Climate is an open access book. It is available for free as an ebook (PDF) or as a hardcover for a fee on the Springer website.