Should I Stay or Should I Go? Governmental Response to Climate Risks and Residents’ Resistance to Relocation across Europe

: Across Europe, various strategies are employed to manage escalating natural hazard risk. While long-standing threats like flooding and wildfires have historically impacted populations and property, the increasing intensity and frequency of these events, driven by climate change, are necessitating more proactive risk management, sometimes involving community relocation. Yet relocation remains highly contested, frequently resisted by residents, and deeply shaped by institutional, legal, and socio-political contexts. Employing a comparative case study methodology, the paper analyses six cases within Wales, Belgium, England, Türkiye, Portugal and Italy. These cases cover pluvial flooding, coastal flooding and erosion, landslides and wildfires. Drawing upon the Policy Arrangements Approach, and reviewing government strategies, legal frameworks, and policy documents the analysis focuses on the interaction between actors, resources, rules and discourses shaping the institutional settings governing the response to climate risk. The cases reflect diverse geographies, varying legal cultures and differing approaches to land policy and property rights. The paper develops a typology of four governmental responses: non-intervention, risk-reduction in place, selective buy-outs and relocation, and emergency relocation. The findings show that slow-onset risks often result in prolonged uncertainty and limited state intervention, while sudden disasters can trigger decisive, sometimes compulsory, relocation supported by emergency powers. By comparing diverse institutional settings, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of how governance frameworks condition both state capacity and residents agency in climate risk management. It demonstrates that hazard temporality, governance legitimacy and the allocation of responsibility between states and compensation regimes fundamentally shape relocation outcomes across diverse European contexts.