Thanks to Richard Ashley for this report
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) is an independent, statutory body established under the Climate Change Act 2008. The Adaptation Sub Committee (ASC), which is part of the CCC, was also established under the Act to advise the UK government and report to Parliament on progress on adaptation to climate change. In June 2017, the ASC produced its second statutory assessment of the National Adaptation Programme. This report considered what actions are being taken to adapt to the current and future impacts of climate change across a number of sectors, and how vulnerability to climate hazards is changing over time. A key finding was that, while much action is underway, it was in most cases unclear what impact those actions had had on reducing risk, i.e. vulnerability or exposure to climate change.
Findings of this study are based on 25 case studies across the urban areas of Glasgow City Region, Greater London, Greater Manchester, Leicester and Newcastle upon Tyne. While the majority of projects were led or supported by a local, combined or unitary authority, consideration was given to projects by any actor (e.g. private sector; National Government). Projects were also not required to be initially conceived of as ‘climate adaptation’; in fact, the majority of projects were primarily framed around other drivers such as flood management or improving urban amenity.