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

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Chapter 4 The role of climate in relation to the key missions of an institution 4.54 An institution’s approach to framing adaptation is to a large degree determined by its key missions. Institutions may be placed within a mission ‘spectrum’ in which climate change has varying priority. Adaptation will be framed differently in each of the following types of institution: institutions with a primary mission of dealing with the consequences of climate change, such as the Climate Change Act 2008 and the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP); institutions where this mission is significant but sits alongside other responsibilities, for example the Environment Agency and local authorities such as Hampshire County Council (Box 4C); institutions where the need for adaptation is not currently recognised (but could be); and institutions where there is no business case for the inclusion of climate change adaptation in its mission. BOX 4C HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL Climate change is a difficult issue which is hard to communicate. Although it is vital to acknowledge the dangers, apocalyptic scenarios can be alienating and counterproductive. It can be helpful to develop a ‘story’ or narrative that is meaningful to people to illustrate the issues. Hampshire County Council (HCC) achieved this by identifying a city with a present climate similar to the future projected climate for Hampshire, namely Bordeaux in south-west France. The Council recognised that the climate is changing, that the effects will be felt in all sectors of society and the economy, and that the impacts will be fundamental to wellbeing and security. The ability to make direct comparisons with a tangible real-world example helped the politicians to understand the risks and opportunities, and to be prepared to take action. HCC has been engaged with climate change issues since the late 1990s, and it sees its role as that of community leader (not least in the new era of more limited strategic engagement for county councils with the new regional spatial planning structures and Local Development Plans). The Council signed the Nottingham Declaration, took part in pilot projects such as Councils for Climate Protection, was a founder member of the South East Climate Change Partnership and has signed up to the Aalborg commitments for sustainable cities. The Council was also a partner on the BRANCH project and has been part of the Advisory Group to the European Commission on Adaptation to Climate Change. HCC led the ESPACE project (Box 3B). The ESPACE Project elaborated an existing Organisational Change Tool developed from the business management literature which has identified different typologies of organisational environmental engagement. 27 The tool was designed to help organisations develop higher levels of performance in addressing climate change. There are six levels from ‘1 – Core Business Focused’ through to ‘6 – The Champion Organisation’, although as in the business literature these are not presented as stand-alone or discrete levels. HCC has also created the ‘performance acceleration capacity-building tool’ (PACT) to help identify its progress against national indicator NI188 (3.25). The Council is looking at different approaches to measuring its performance against NI188 because it believes that the cumulative effect of adaptation may be more important than making the transition from one level to the 78
4.55 next. The Council observed that, when it comes to adaptation, “the more you know, the more you realise you don’t know”. This led HCC to score itself more moderately against NI188 than some other local authorities, who have possibly not explored adaptation to the same depth. We have also observed that where climate change is not a defined part of the mission of an institution, the capacity to respond can be hampered. For example, neither the EU Birds Directive nor the Habitats Directive considers the possibility of climate change (Box 4D), which has left many actors uncertain as to how well these instruments will be able to respond to biodiversity changes resulting from climate change, as discussed in the section on path dependency (4.18-4.27). There are also cases where an institution’s legal and policy framework, whilst not ignoring environmental and social issues (including climate change adaptation), places them in a secondary role. The economic regulation of water services is a good example. Ofwat has a number of statutory duties, including duties to protect the interests of consumers and to secure a reasonable return for water companies, as well as a duty, which is ‘subject to’ those former duties, to exercise its powers in the way best calculated to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development. The fact that ‘consumers’ are defined to include future consumers gives considerable scope to Ofwat in respect of adaptation to climate change; and, indeed, Ofwat has taken steps to respond to the challenge. 28 However, pragmatically, given the legal and policy framework, its focus is on ensuring that water services are affordable for consumers. There are signs, from statements by water companies in England and Wales about the recent determinations of prices for 2010-15, vi that there are tensions around the provision of finance for investment now and longer-term objectives. This was addressed in part by Ofwat in the final determinations29 but recognised as a matter needing some further reform before the review of prices for 2015-20. BOX 4D THE EU BIRDS AND HABITATS DIRECTIVES The EU Birds Directive (79/409/EEC) was one of the earliest environmental instruments adopted by the European Union, and views conservation in terms of overall wellbeing rather than as a specific sectoral interest. The Directive requires Member States to act to restore or maintain populations of all species of birds occurring naturally in the wild in Europe at levels corresponding to ecological, scientific and cultural requirements. The requisite measures include those needed to preserve, maintain or re-establish a sufficient diversity and area of habitats. The provisions should form the fundamental basis for conservation in Member States. The Directive also requires Member States to establish Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for listed rare, vulnerable or endangered species. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) sought legal advice on whether the Birds Directive (as amended by the Habitats Directive) is sufficiently flexible to meet the challenges which may arise from climate change. This advice concluded that, overall, the Birds Directive will continue to provide protection for birds even where climate change has led to changes in bird distributions and broad habitat ranges. It also established that deterioration in ‘bird quality’ in the UK as a result of climate change will not allow the authorities to abandon or lessen their attempts to protect birds. It does not, however, address the question of whether (and, if so, how) a network of protected areas identified and designated under one set of climatic conditions will be effective when conditions change. vi Water companies are required to prepare a 25-year strategy, and prices are determined for five-year periods within this. 79 Chapter 4
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Adapting Institutions to Climate Ch
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The cover image of an adaptation sn
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ROYAL COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL P
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Contents vii Paragraph Page Chapter
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Specific institutional arrangements
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1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Chapter 1 INTRO
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1.9 1.10 What is adaptation? The In
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1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 Secondly, much
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every circumstance. However, the Co
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2.15 Average global sea levels are
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UKCP09 projections differ from thos
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level) and those which are only lik
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FIGURE 2-II Projected changes to wi
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2.29 Some of the projected temperat
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FIGURE 2-IV Change in observed temp
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2.52 2.53 2.54 2.55 2.56 2.57 oxyge
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2.63 2.64 2.65 2.66 Not only are ha
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2.73 BOX 2D FACTORS AFFECTING THE C
Page 37 and 38: y the changing climate as sea level
Page 39 and 40: BIODIVERSITY SUMMARY OF THE IMPACTS
Page 41 and 42: climate change”. 70 The new speci
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Page 45 and 46: 3.7 3.8 action 1 encourages Member
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Page 71 and 72: 3.94 Defra announced on 1 December
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Page 75 and 76: INTRODUCTION 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Chapte
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Page 79 and 80: PATH DEPENDENCY 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21
Page 81 and 82: 4.25 4.26 4.27 Another way of consi
Page 83 and 84: Efficiency 4.36 Efficiency is about
Page 85 and 86: 4.47 4.48 4.49 participation. We re
Page 87: 4.53 The key elements of framing th
Page 91 and 92: overarching strategic framework set
Page 93 and 94: 4.70 There was a dilemma running th
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Page 97 and 98: 4.88 4.89 from flooding. Hot-spots
Page 99 and 100: BOX 4G LEGAL ASPECTS OF COASTAL PRO
Page 101 and 102: communicative learning in terms of
Page 103 and 104: is not limited to a single departme
Page 105 and 106: INTRODUCTION 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.
Page 107 and 108: 5.11 A number of our recommendation
Page 109 and 110: 5.23 5.24 The Climate Change Act 20
Page 111 and 112: 5.34 5.35 5.36 5.37 Two of our earl
Page 113 and 114: 5.46 The Commission recommends that
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Page 117 and 118: 5.67 5.68 5.69 5.70 There is no obv
Page 119 and 120: 5.79 underpin the need for the gove
Page 121 and 122: BOX 5A AN INDICATIVE LIST OF TEN QU
Page 123 and 124: CHAPTER 1 References 1 Royal Commis
Page 125 and 126: 27 Data from the UK Climate Project
Page 127 and 128: 66 Willis, S.G., Hill, J.K., Thomas
Page 129 and 130: 13 Ibid, page 12. 14 For further de
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Page 135 and 136: 37 There is an extensive literature
Page 137 and 138: 4 Greater London Authority Act 2007
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The European Commission has publish
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The study will, therefore, draw on
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Range of climate change Q2) There a
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Values relating to the natural envi
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Adaptive capacity (also referred to
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species that might survive and subs
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Appendix B CONDUCT OF THE STUDY In
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Forestry Commission Grantham Instit
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UK Collaborative on Development Sci
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VISITS During the course of the stu
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Mark Williams Scottish Water Ruth W
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CHAIRMAN Appendix D MEMBERS OF THE
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PROFESSOR MARIA LEE Professor of
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PROFESSOR JOANNE SCOTT Professor
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Abbreviations ACC Adapting to Clima
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SPA Special Protection Area SSSI Si
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Biodiversity Action Plan 2.99 Birds
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supply and treatment of 3.55 Englan
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water supply and wastewater treatme
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institutional arrangements adaptati
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UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP
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