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

Chapter 3
exercise his/her functions “with the objective of contributing to the achievement of sustainable
development” embraces a further explicit obligation to “have regard to the desirability of …
adapting to … climate change”. 43 This rather weak (especially for such a recent statute) reference
to adaptation is considerably strengthened by the requirement that National Policy Statements
include “an explanation of how the policy set out in the statement takes account of Government
policy relating to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change”. 44
3.43 The new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) is currently empowered to take final decisions
on consent for nationally significant infrastructure, replacing the role of the local authority or
Secretary of State (who would generally have called in such an application and made a decision
following a public inquiry). The IPC has limited discretion: it must decide in accordance with the
relevant National Policy Statement, unless to do so would lead to a breach of legal obligations, or
where the IPC “is satisfied that the adverse impact of the proposed development would outweigh
its benefits”. 45 The operation of the IPC is, however, not yet clear. Whilst there is clearly an
expectation from Government that the National Policy Statement will ‘once and for all’ consider
infrastructure planning in the national interest, there is scope for the IPC to make full use of the
‘adverse impact’ provision of the statute. Nevertheless, we can conclude that getting the policy
right is even more important than usual under the new regime.
3.44
The Department of Energy and Climate Change published several draft National Policy Statements
relating to energy infrastructure for consultation on 9 November 2009. 46 The IPC is under no
explicit duty to consider adaptation to climate change. However, the Draft Overarching National
Policy Statement for Energy would require the IPC to be satisfied that any applicant has taken
into account the potential impacts of climate change, using the current projections at the time,
and that appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures have been identified. The guidance also
suggests that if there are critical features of the design which would be seriously affected by more
radical changes to the climate, the IPC should be satisfied that action can be taken to keep the
infrastructure operational over its estimated lifetime. This is welcome. We assume that other
departments will include similar requirements in their draft Statements when they are published
in due course.
INSTITUTIONS FOR WATER, COASTAL EROSION AND
NATURE CONSERVATION
3.45 The governance of each of the exemplars we have chosen, as for many issues, is complex. It is
multilayered, involving both national governments and local bodies such as district or county
councils, and it involves both democratic bodies with a broad range of responsibilities, such
as local authorities, and specialist agencies such as the Environment Agency, the Countryside
Council for Wales, and Scottish Natural Heritage. In addition to statutory agencies, the private
sector and non-governmental organisations have important roles. And in many cases there are
partnerships in place, where a number of these bodies come together to deliver shared objectives
– a response to the need for co-ordinated and complementary actions in the face of complex
organisational responsibilities.
3.46
In addition, for both water and nature conservation, national institutions operate within institutional
arrangements laid down by the European Union, most significantly in the Water Framework
Directive, the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive. These lay down, with legal force, both
the broad objectives to be achieved for water resources or for conservation, and some of the
mechanisms and the processes to be followed by Member States to achieve those objectives.
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