£16.4m: the cost of weather in Oxfordshire, 1996–2006

September 2009

Oxfordshire County Council was the first council to embark on a Local Climate Impacts Profile. As a signatory to the Nottingham Declaration, the council’s Environment & Economy unit was tasked with assessing the likely impacts of climate change on council services and also encouraging adaptation in the wider community. The Local Climate Impacts Profile was trialled as a method of achieving both these aims.

The 3 month project resulted in a spreadsheet of 260 weather related incidents from a 10 year period, 15 council officer interview transcripts and a 4-page report.

The project succeeded in raising awareness of adaptation internally and gathered substantial evidence that the council was vulnerable to a number of weather related impacts. From officer interviews and finance data the cost associated with weather incidents over a decade was estimated to be £16.4 million. This figure was extensively quoted in the local press, though often misrepresented as the “cost of climate change”.

Even though this figure was a considerable underestimate it leant weight to the adaptation agenda within the authority. However the LCLIP did not go as far as to identify specific adaptations needed and so further assessment of risks and possible adaptations is necessary.

One of the key learning outcomes of Oxfordshire’s experience was that putting a cost on the weather events, though not an essential part of the LCLIP, and potentially open to misinterpretation, was invaluable from an awareness-raising perspective.