At the national level, governments have enshrined climate targets (e.g., net-zero pledges) in domestic legislation, enabling systematic scrutiny through parliaments. These institutions are also influenced by social movements and public opinion, which affect democratic accountability, participation, and the effectiveness of decision-making. 

The ability of a community to prepare for, resist, respond to, and recover from the impacts of climate change in a timely and efficient manner, with minimum damage and disruption to the environment, and the social well-being and economic vitality of the community. Resilience and adaptive capacity are strongly linked. Thus, different groups within the community will be relatively more or relatively less resilient to climate phenomena, depending on their adaptive capacity.