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Local Government
Local government and its partners are at the forefront of action to ensure the UK is fully adapted and resilient to the impacts of climate change. Local government plays a major role in shaping local places by taking decisions and providing guidance, through the local democratic process, on the form of the urban landscape, the built environment and green or natural spaces. It also plays a key role in the management of the local natural environment such as through local flood and coastal risk management, air quality, water resources and water quality.
Changes in climate and extreme weather could impact on many of the services provided by the local authorities including schools, adult social care and public spaces. Without effective local planning and risk management, climate change impacts are likely to be greater, local services are more likely to be disrupted, needs are less likely to be met and the knock-on impact on budgets and service delivery is likely to be more severe.
Impacts
From increased flooding risk:
- Significant increase to annual damage to properties and important infrastructure such as roads and railways;
- Average annual cost to businesses of disruption estimated to increase
- Higher casualities and impact on mental wellbeing of the communities affected.
From warmer summers:
- Projected increases in losses of productivity due to workplace overheating;
- Reduced water availability leading to more frequent water use restrictions. The gap between demand and supply will potentially widen, impacting homes, businesses, schools and hospitals;
- Rising energy demand for cooling, particularly in the south of the UK, due to higher summer temperatures.
- More melting and rutting of road surfaces. This may be a particular problem on local roads, as these meet lower surface specifications than motorways and trunk roads.
- An increase in heat-related mortality and morbidity and health problems from air pollution, such as ground level ozone, may increase.
Several of these impacts impact on the most vulnerable groups within local communities, such as older people, and also have implications for local resilience and emergency services.
Benefits
- New opportunities for local businesses due to the move to a low carbon economy and adaptation measures.
- New opportunities for local businesses, for example in tourism.
Questions
- What is your authority already doing to address the range of risks and opportunities in the CCRA? What is working well?
- What are the barriers or challenges to addressing the risks and opportunities in the CCRA? Where are there problems?
- What can be done to assist Local Authorities to address the risks and opportunities outlined in the CCRA? What are the priorities?
- Many local authorities have undertaken their own climate change risk assessments and are developing local adaptation action plans; what else is needed so an effective response to the future climate risks and opportunities can be taken?
Local Authority input into the National Adaptation Programme will be crucial. Adaptation action will need to reflect and address the most pressing climate risks, which will vary between localities across the country.
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1. NALC is not a principal local authority, but agrees with the principles contained in the CCRA and its outcomes relating to climate change adaptation, which it pursues. NALC promotes and publicises the need for local (parish and town) councils, as appropriate, to adhere to these principles. NALC attends meetings of the LAAP when it can, offers conference slots on the matter as appropriate, and has recently supported a University College London project on The Green Deal. NALC’s role is to share good practice and to signpost local councils to good advice on climate change adaptation – larger local councils such as Aylesbury Town Council in Buckinghamshire are at the forefront of this agenda, greening their office building space to adapt to climate change.
2. It will be very difficult for local councils to adapt to the challenges of climate change emanating from a lack of certainty over future levels of greenhouse gas emissions (as with any other sector). Additionally, if flooding is set to increase significantly in England across the next century and local councils have already been significantly involved in supporting their (often rural) communities in recent years when this has occurred – they will be significantly challenged to continue to do this – unless there is greater support from the Environment Agency (e.g. the Broom flooding problem at Bidford on Avon). So the problems, despite local councils being well placed to mitigate the challenges of climate change adaptation at the grassroots level – for them – are ones of both resource and uncertainty.
3. The Government and the Environment Agency can provide greater political pressure on and guidance to principal local authorities on how to create flood management partnerships locally to combat increased flooding. Such flood partnerships need to involve local councils, community groups, relevant principal local authority officers and appropriate (regional) Environment Agency staff – to help respond quickly and locally to increasingly sudden and great flooding risks. For political reasons in the past, principal authorities have not collaborated in some instances where they should have done, with local councils, to respond to flooding. Local councils – especially in areas like Warwickshire – are excellent grassroots partners and allies to have when tasks such as sandbag distribution and storage are required, in the event of flooding. Nationally – given some of the evidence contained in the CCRA Evidence Report (DEFRA, 2012: Xii) – flooding seems to be the greatest consequence of climate change, so support to and requirements upon principal authorities to work far more locally and with regard to local councils would, as appropriate, seem to be a priority.
4. It can only be a positive development if some principal authorities have already developed their own CCRAs and local adaptation action plans. These need really to be parish-proofed so that we can know that local councils have been engaged, consulted and involved at every stage. That way (as with local councils and flooding in Warwickshire) – effective local responses to future climate change risks and opportunities, can be effected.
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1. Please see link. We have set up an adaptation partnership in the county that aims to address risks to both individual organisations and to local communities. Each authority who has the resources to be involved is completing a risk assessment and plan for their authority, and a county-wide assessment is looking at the most vulnerable locations and assets in the county.
2 & 4. Money and resources; none of us have any of the former to implement high level responses (such as adapting buildings), and some of us don’t even have resources to even complete an assessment or plan.
3. A statutory requirement to develop adaptation strategies and responses would be useful. Since the abolishment of NI188 we have nothing that states that we should be doing anything on adaptation. Greater pressure from the Government would help with this.
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How will we know if local authorities are doing adequate risk assessments and translating them into action. There is no longer a performance indicator laid on local authorities to track overall performance on climate change adaptation. They are not subject to the reporting requirement. They should be.
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“Baroness Young,
Many thanks for your comment. You are right to say that local authorities have a crucial role in climate change adaptation – most adaptation action needs to happen at a local scale. Can I ask- what is your view of how well local authorities are currently assessing their climate risks?
If, in the current climate, it is considered appropriate to extend the Reporting Power to local authorities how do you think it could be applied proportionally? What role might be played by sector-led proposals such as ‘Climate Local’, which will increase the transparency of local authority adaptation actions? It would be really interesting to hear views from other people who are participating in this discussion.”
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1.Through the National Indicator 188 the authority has endorsed a corporate adaptation action plan (August 2011) based on findings from an Essex Local Impact profile and Climate Change Risk Register in order to build resilience in to the authority’s service delivery from severe weather events and a changing climate.
Since the removal of the National Indictors the Authority developed and signed our own corporate Environmental Statement. The Statement is designed to be a reflection of current policies, plans and schemes (i.e. Carbon Reduction Commitment) and the objectives set out in the Corporate Plan.
The Authority works in partnership with the Districts, Boroughs and other partners (including Sustainability East, Environment Agency, Climate Energy, Energy Saving Trust and NHS to deliver climate change projects such as a partner online forum to share best practice, coordinating the development of Climate Change training for planners funded by Sustainability East Climate Change Skills Fund. Also from this funding the delivery of Energy Efficiency ‘Train the Trainers’ training for Essex LAs and NHS front line staff and Carbon Reduction training and Advice for Essex businesses. In 2010, the Authority won a National Edie Award for Environmental Excellence for the Home Improvement Agency training, where agency staff was trained to City and Guilds standards to deliver energy efficiency advice during their home visits.
The Authority is currently working with a range of partners on community resilience against climate change and this partnership know at BREC (Building Resilience in Essex Communities). It has been successfully awarded funding by the Big Lottery on Communities Living Sustainably to develop a Project Delivery Plan. The Essex project aims to work with four communities in Essex to improve community resilience and encourage behaviour change amongst individuals and communities so they can cope better with the environmental, economic and social impacts of a changing climate.
2.The barriers or challenges LAs face is the high level of uncertainty around adaptation, on whether LAs should invest resources on actions; with no guarantee they will provide the long-term resilience required and cost of long-term maintenance. There is pressure for LAs to save money, and that they may not realise the opportunities of investing in adaptation measures now, in return saving money in the long-term (spend to save).
Since the removal of the National Indicators and the need for LAs to make cut backs a number of climate changes roles, skills and knowledge have been lost, leaving a gap in resources and capacity, as well as general political acceptance, since there is no statutory requirement to address adaptation risks, (although it makes good business sense). With the focus on localism each LA has identified different priorities and objectives which do not necessarily include adaptation. There is a significant drive towards economical growth, which is often seen to conflict with action to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Majority of actions taken by LAs to date are those of mitigation, because LAs are able to deliver tangible actions, visualise a direct outcome and measure progress, as well as the statutory requirement of the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme.
3. There is a need to gain political acceptance whether it is through making adaptation a statutory requirement. A way that could help address this issue is a simple cost analysis tool or local case study of the cost of not adapting to climate change to make it more understandable and real to each LA. To ensure the messages to LA and the general public are clear and also highlights the opportunities. Recognise that each LA has different priorities and objectives, so a one size programme does not fit all and that LAs can not do it on their own and that other organisations and even residents need to take responsibility.
A number of LA’s have a lack of financial resources and staffing issues, so would need support in new partnership (pooling resources), guidance and tools, continued access to latest research, and improved sharing of best practice.
4.A consistent approached with tailored messages to reflect the needs of an area and that message to everyone is clear, with better use of language and positive/opportunities, to encourage everyone to take action and responsibility.
To gain political acceptance to take adaptive action is to provide LAs with some incentive or to make it a statutory obligation for LAs to embed adaptation in all corporate policy and plans, along with a set of measurable to measure progress.
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The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) has recently successfully completed a pan-European project on green space and adaptation, for which we developed Adaptation Action Planning guidance to help institutions and authorities better plan for adaptation. It is worth looking through if you have the chance. Southampton and London Borough of Sutton led the charge for England and the UK in this partnership.
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Many thanks Michael – This sounds great. Could you point us in the direction of the guidance produced? How widely used has it been by others and how effective was considered?
Many thanks
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More information on Adaptation Action Planning (AAP) from the GRaBS project on http://www.grabs-eu.org/news.php. It is applicable not just to planning but other sectors as well.
The Guidance was developed by all the project partners including UK partners – London Borough of Sutton, Southampton City and the North West. It is only effective as long as there is political commitment to the agenda which these partners had.
The AAP is supported by a number of other complementary elements including a High Level Policy Statement (essentially corporate and planning commitment).
There will be further news and announcements about the legacy and achievements of the GRaBS project, including the AAP work element in June. So watch this space or the TCPA and GRaBS websites.
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