Exploring Climate Preparedness

The analysis finds a very weak correlation between a country's institutional readiness and its citizens' perceived personal preparedness for extreme weather. While some countries like Vietnam show high levels of both, others like Armenia have high institutional readiness but low personal preparedness, and the Philippines shows high personal preparedness despite lower institutional readiness. The study emphasizes that climate resilience requires tailored strategies based on these distinct gaps, noting that 48 of the 68 examined countries rank in the bottom half of global institutional readiness.

• There is a very weak relationship (R² < 0.01) between institutional climate readiness and individual perceptions of preparedness, meaning a higher ND-GAIN Readiness score does not necessarily correlate with people feeling more prepared.
• Among the 68 countries and territories surveyed, only 13 had majorities who reported being prepared for extreme weather. Vietnam had the highest percentage of prepared individuals at 70%, while Azerbaijan had the lowest at 17%.
• The study identifies four distinct quadrants of preparedness: 'Lower Left' (low institutional and personal readiness, e.g., Yemen and Democratic Republic of the Congo), 'Lower Right' (high institutional but low personal readiness, e.g., Armenia), 'Upper Left' (low institutional but high personal readiness, e.g., Philippines), and 'Upper Right' (high institutional and personal readiness, e.g., Vietnam).
• A significant majority of the analyzed regions are highly vulnerable, with 48 out of 68 countries falling in the bottom half of the ND-GAIN Readiness score rankings.
• Funding cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are noted as a risk to adaptation work, specifically citing terminated programs in Nepal that focused on agricultural diversity and productivity.

APA

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (2026). Exploring Climate Preparedness. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/exploring-climate-preparedness/

Chicago

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Exploring Climate Preparedness. 2026. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/exploring-climate-preparedness/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Yale Program on Climate Change Communication |title=Exploring Climate Preparedness |date=26 February 2026 |url=https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/exploring-climate-preparedness/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{yaleprogramonclimatechangecommunication2026exploring, author = {{Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}}, title = {{Exploring Climate Preparedness}}, institution = {Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}, year = {2026}, month = feb, url = {https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/exploring-climate-preparedness/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }