Adaptation Scotland | Our Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh
23/06/11
Is Scotland successfully adapting to climate change? Is progress being made quickly enough? What vital steps are needed to adapt to climate change and who needs to be involved?
Adaptation Scotland, the first conference of its kind in Scotland, was held on Thursday 23 June 2011 at Our Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh. The conference which was organised by SCCIP, was attended by approximately 200 people and provided an overview of the key drivers for climate change adaptation, the progress being made across various sectors and the priorities for the next few years.
The conference opened with an address from Scotland’s Minister for Environment and Climate Change – Stewart Stevenson MSP, who launched guidance 'Adapting to Climate Change' and an accompanying toolkit that will encourage Scotland’s public sector organisations to increase their resilience to the impacts of climate change.
The guidance provides public sector policy makers and resource managers with key facts and advice on practical approaches that can be taken to help protect organisations, communities and infrastructure against climate change-related impacts such as increased rainfall and greater risk of flooding. The toolkit provides public sector bodies with detailed examples of what they can do to become more resilient to our changing climate.
The first session of the conference set the scene comprising presentations on the science of climate change, the policy context in Scotland and the decision making challenges that Scotland faces.
The second session focussed on the three pillars that form an integral part of Scotland's Climate Change Adaptation Framework namely: Providing the evidence base, Equipping decision makers with skills and tools and Integrating adaptation into regulation and public policy.
Session three provided an opportunity to explore more specific issues with four parallel sessions covering the following topics: 1. Doing business & using infrastructure in a changing climate, 2. Land-use in a changing climate, 3. Preparing for a future climate – planning and the built environment, and 4. Adaptation tools and community engagement
The conference concluded with two inspirational presentations examining the issues of society and adaptation and global food in the context of climate change adaptation.
Presentations from the speakers are now available below. Videos from the conference will also be available shortly.
We would like to thank all those who presented, chaired and attended Adaptation Scotland.
More photos from the conference can be found on Flickr.