Derry City and Strabane District CouncilClimate Change Adaptation Plan 2020-2025

Themes & Priorities
1. Cross Cutting Themes
1.1 Delivery & Collaboration
Ensure governance and resources of Derry City & Strabane
District Council are adequate to deliver adaptation planning
and actions, and work with others to strengthen the resilience
of the District, within North West region
It is critical that we ensure the necessary governance structures
and resources to deliver the adaptation plan vision, objectives
and actions. This includes staffing, financial resources and the
necessary governance structures to support implementation,
monitoring, reporting and review.
Climate change impacts involve a wide spectrum of agencies,
sectors, communities and businesses therefore adaptation
requires a multi-agency collaborative approach involving a
wide range of stakeholders across the City and District.
We recognise that innovative resilience solutions can be
achieved cross-sectorally for example between higher
education, energy sector, IT services, transport, housing, health
and logistics. Understanding these interdependencies requires
dialogue with stakeholders and a collaborative approach
looking beyond statutory requirements.
It is also imperative that we seek to influence and inform local,
regional and national policies and plans in relation to climate
adaptation in order to ensure the necessary context, legislative
frameworks and support to deliver resilience.
1.2 Communication & Awareness
Increase awareness and understanding of climate change
contributing to the ability of Council and communities to
adapt
Raising awareness across the Council and local communities
is vital to the delivery of the adaptation plan actions. We
recognise the importance of creating awareness of climate
change impacts within Council teams to enhance personal
resilience and wider ownership of the adaptation actions.
Increasing staff awareness also provides the opportunity to
encourage employees to engage with others about climate
change as well as develop their own initiatives with colleagues
and local communities.
We will also seek to increase local capacity beyond Council
to deliver climate adaptation through communication and
engagement programmes in order to increase awareness and
knowledge to strengthen preparedness.
Through initiatives such as the proposed North West Climate
Assembly, the Council has the opportunity to foster greater
engagement of local communities in decision making about
responses to climate change as this has been proven to ensure
greater adaptive capacity particularly for vulnerable groups
(Lindley et al, 2011).
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DCSDC Climate Change Adaptation Plan