Twenty-eighth Report Adapting Institutions to Climate Change Cm ...

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nature. 39 Other underlying problems also exist, not least the professional capacity of planners in
terms of adaptation, and the training and awareness of politicians who are ultimately responsible
for planning decisions. We discuss these issues further in Chapter 4.
Various appraisal obligations could reinforce the consideration of climate change adaptation
in the planning process. Strategic environmental assessment (of plans and programmes) and
environmental impact assessment (of projects) both focus on the impact of proposals on the
environment, rather than vice versa. Whilst these assessments encompass the impact of proposals
on, for example, water or biodiversity in a changing climate, they provide a somewhat indirect
approach to adaptation. Nevertheless, the prospective, cross-sectoral and consultative approach
of the environmental assessment legislation could prove to be a key tool in adapting to climate
change. Environmental assessment obligations originate in EU law and so apply across the board
(including to nationally significant infrastructure). Sustainability appraisal is also required of
development planning at the regional and local level and of National Policy Statements under the
Planning Act 2008. 40 CLG planning policy emphasises that adapting to the impacts of a changing
climate should be a ‘key part’ of sustainability appraisal; 41 even without this policy guidance, that
would be a reasonable expectation.
The ESPACE Project (European Spatial Planning: Adapting to Climate Events, Box 3B)
demonstrates the way a number of planning authorities across north-west Europe have begun to
approach these issues.
BOX 3B ESPACE (EUROPEAN SPATIAL PLANNING: ADAPTING TO CLIMATE EVENTS) 42
Launched in 2003, ESPACE is a five-year project led by Hampshire County Council
and funded by the European Commission’s north-west Europe INTERREG IIIB
Programme, the ESPACE Partnership and the Department for Communities and Local
Government (CLG).
ESPACE recommends how adaptation to climate change can be incorporated into spatial
planning policies, processes and practices. Concentrating on water management issues, it was
one of the first projects to focus on increasing awareness of the need for spatial planning
systems to adapt to the impacts of climate change and to begin to provide some of the
necessary policy guidance, tools and mechanisms to incorporate adaptation into planning
systems and processes.
ESPACE was founded by a transnational group of ten partners, also known as the ‘ESPACE
Partnership’, spanning four north-west European countries and bringing together representatives
from all levels of civic society. They include: Hampshire County Council (lead partner),
the Environment Agency, South East Climate Change Partnership, South East England
Regional Assembly, Surrey County Council and West Sussex County Council from the UK;
Regional Landschap Zenne, Zuun en Zoniën from Belgium; Waterschap Rivierenland and
Ministerie van VROM from the Netherlands; and the Bayerisches Landesamt für Umwelt
from Germany.
Finally on planning, we should note the new approach in England (also Wales in respect of
some non-devolved energy projects) to ‘nationally significant infrastructure’, in the fields of
energy, transport, water, wastewater and hazardous waste, set out in the Planning Act 2008. This
provides for National Policy Statements on nationally significant infrastructure to be drawn up
by Government, subject to parliamentary scrutiny. The obligation on the Secretary of State to
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Chapter 3