National policy context

Adaptation to climate change is increasingly being incorporated into national policies and legislation that require forward planning. The current policy drivers for local authorities are:

Climate Change Act

The Climate Change Act gives the Secretary of State the power to direct local authorities to produce reports on the current and future predicted impacts of climate change on their organisation and proposals for adapting to climate change, currently via NI188 reporting.

A local climate impact profile should help an authority to identify some current predicted impacts of climate change.

UK Climate Projections

In 2009 Defra and DECC published the UK Climate Projections (UKCP09) to assist local authorities and other organisations in their adaptation work.

UKCP09 are climate projections which use cutting-edge science in order to better understand how the UK’s climate may change over this century. UKCP09 can be used to help organisations to assess the impacts of future climate change on, for example, a habitat, council service or a structure.

There are plenty of examples of impacts assessments and adaptation actions that have used climate information. Examples can be found in the UKCIP Case study database and Defra’s Adapting to Climate Change (ACC) case studies.

Support for UKCP09 users is provided by online guidance and regularly-updated FAQs, as well as a helpdesk. These are available from the UKCP09 website. More details about Training sessions and elearning courses are available from this website.

More information about the policy drivers for adaptation and LCLIPs is contained in our LCLIP Case Studies. These represent work in progress, rather than best practice, as each authority is likely to have different concerns, requirements and resources available.