Climate change is now widely recognised as the pressing global issue of the next fifty years, requiring social and cultural as well as scientific solutions. The project this report summarises aimed to build adaptive capacity for climate change mitigation and adaptation, using cultural research. We focused on the Illawarra, a region central to Australia’s carbon economy. We undertook a baseline study of current knowledge of climate change and tracked community response over a period of five years from 2009 to 2013. We identified social and cultural resources for, and constraints to, more environmentally sustainable behaviours, with an aim to contribute to policy solutions. The project provides a basis for regional and international comparisons.