The second Climate Ready Clyde project workshop will take place on the 8th March at the Glasgow Skills Academy. 

Public, private and community sector organisations located or with business interests in Glasgow and the Clyde Valley are invited to find out more about the project and consider attending the workshop.

Find out more about the Climate Ready Clyde Project here: http://www.adaptationscotland.org.uk/4/110/0/Area-based-project--Climate-Ready-Clyde.aspx 

Please contact Adaptation Scotland if you would like to get involved with the project and attend the workshop: adaptationscotland@sniffer.org.uk

This course will increase participant’s knowledge, understanding, confidence and ability to apply climate change adaptation related risk assessment techniques across different departments and service areas. In particular it will equip participants with the skills and resources necessary to run cross departmental climate change adaptation risk assessment workshops within their own organisations. 

THIS COURSE IS NOW FULLY BOOKED. PLEASE JOIN THE WAITING LIST BY VISITING THE REGISTRATION WEBSITE:

Registration website: http://adaptationscotlandrisktraining.eventbrite.co.uk

Password: risktraining 

Please contact Anna Beswick, Adaptation Scotland Public Sector Officer for more information: anna@sniffer.org.uk

We've just updated our national weather event impacts log. This log is created using records collected by local authorities as part of Local Climate Impact Profile Projects and now includes 1391 weather event impacts that occured as a result of hundreds of different severe weather events.

Find out more and download the log from the LCLIP project findings section of the website.  

The UK Government has published the first assessment of the impacts the UK is facing from climate change. The Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) presents the latest evidence on the threats and opportunities of climate change for the UK to the end of the century. The CCRA consists of a number of reports, including 'a Climate Change Risk Assessment for Scotland'. A summary of the Scotland report is also available.

Under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act, Scottish Ministers are required to develop an adaptation programme to address the risks identified for Scotland in the CCRA and work on this is now underway. In the meantime, the Climate Change Adaptation Framework and the accompanying Sector Action Plans continue to build resilience and capacity to adapt to climate changes in Scotland.

Read The Scottish Government's press release

Read Defra's press release

In coming decades the impact of climate change and sea level rise, and our response to addressing its causes and adapting to its effects, will increasingly have implications for Scotland’s landscapes, be it altering its character or the landscape’s contribution to our quality of life.  These effects are explored in two new reports from Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

The first report, ‘An assessment of the impacts of climate change on Scottish Landscapes and their contribution to quality of life’, notes that while the effects of climate change may not be certain, it will certainly have implications for Scotland’s landscapes and the social, economic and environmental benefits they provide.  Bringing together current research on the effects of climate change across a range of sectors, including forestry, agriculture, ecology and the built environment, the study explores how these changes could interact and alter Scottish landscapes and townscapes and the benefits they provide to people.  Landscape change will result from the direct impacts of a changing climate as well as from indirect impacts of human attempts to slow climate change (mitigation) or respond to a changing climate (adaptation). The study concludes that overall, mitigation and adaptation measures are likely to have a more significant influence on landscape character than the direct effects of climate change.

To make it easier to use these findings SNH has also produced a series of Regional Summaries, accessible on their website, highlighting the pertinent issues for decision making across Scotland.

The second report, ‘Climate Change Conversations’, carried out with the support of Sciencewise-ERC[1], presents the findings of a project that engaged two Scottish communities in discussing the implications of climate change for their place.  The process enabled them to consider what they valued about their area, the benefits their local landscape provided, how these could be affected by climate change, and their preferred response to these impacts.

Both communities recognised that climate change is likely to result in significant change across the area and that it will not be possible to prevent this. It was accepted that the focus should be on managing this change to retain or, where it may be lost, record, what is important and distinctive about the area. There was understanding of potential tensions, trade-offs, compromises and competing pressures for land; and a general preference expressed for smaller scale and diverse approaches to carbon reduction to fit better with their area’s resources and character.

The work has shown that considering climate change through its effects on the local landscape and quality of life provides a useful methodology for communities.  The framework provided by ‘ecosystem services’ proved useful in exploring the reasons why the local landscape is valued, and to assess the likely implications of change. This pilot work is currently being developed with the production of a web-based community dialogue toolkit (‘Talking About Our Place’), to aid communities to consider the value of their place and explore issues that affect it.  This will be available in Spring 2012.

Adaptation Scotland is delighted to have commenced work with Scotland’s 2020 Climate Group to raise awareness of the impacts that climate change may present to businesses and to help strengthen the adaptive capacity among the members to deal with these impacts.

To facilitate this, Adaptation Scotland is now working closely with two Group members: Royal Mail and First Group. The projects will see both companies assess the risks and opportunities that climate change may present to their business and explore possible adaptation options that are available to address these risks and take advantage of the opportunities.

Welcoming the initiative Ian Marchant, Convenor of the 2020 Group said:

 “To date much of the work of the 2020 Group has focused on climate change mitigation - reducing our emissions which contribute to the causes of climate change. However we now recognise that there is a clear need for leadership on the issue of climate change adaptation. Businesses in Scotland must start to look at where they are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and prepare to address these threats and also take advantage of the opportunities”.

Learnings from the projects will be shared with the 2020 Group so that all members can benefit and will also be developed as case studies and incorporated into Adaptation Scotland’s tools/resources so that businesses throughout Scotland can benefit from this experience. The work will take place between now and March 2012.

People who emit the least carbon in the UK are most likely to suffer from the consequences of climate change. Two new reports, published today by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, show for the first time who emits the most carbon and identifies who and where is most vulnerable to climate change in the UK.

Find out more and download both reports here:http://www.jrf.org.uk/media-centre/climate-change-injustice

This the ASC's first report to Scotland. Following reports on how well the UK is prepared to deal with climate change, the ASC was asked by the Scottish Government to undertake an evaluation of how well Scotland is preparing for climate change. This report provides an independent assessment of Scotland’s preparedness for climate change, based on the ASC’s ‘preparedness ladder’. The aim of the report is to help inform the development of Scotland’s first statutory Adaptation Programme and to provide a baseline to measure future progress.

Download the report here:http://www.theccc.org.uk/reports/adaptation/asc-scotland

Adaptation Scotland is delighted to support Heriot Watt in this research project. They are looking for companies to participate in a cross-sectoral case study to explore supply chain adaptation to climate change.

• Have you considered climate change as a major risk to your supply chain?

• How do you achieve supply chain resilience?

• Is your supply chain adaptive enough to climate change?

For more information please see the flyer below. 

New research published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

This study includes case study information for Glasgow and assesses how many people in urban areas are at risk from 'pluvial' flooding – surface water accumulating from the result of intense rainfall. It also explores how socially deprived areas are at slightly higher risk of pluvial flooding.

Download the executive sumnmary and full report from the JRF website: http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/pluvial-flooding-invisible-hazard