Home > Areas of expertise > Energy and climate change strategies > Adaptation to climate change

Due to past greenhouse gas emissions, we are already experiencing changes to our climate which have economic, social and environmental impacts. This will continue for the next few decades, regardless of current and future efforts to reduce emissions. Adaptation requires identifying the relevant vulnerabilities in different sectors, recognising the risks, challenges and potential opportunities such impacts can bring and preparing accordingly.

We provide clients with technical understanding of climate change impacts as well as expertise in developing the strategic responses that adaptation requires, such as risk assessment, policy option assessment and prioritization of adaptation actions in the short, medium and long term. Our experience in the design, implementation and operation of buildings, plants and infrastructure supports our work on how to build our clients’ adaptive capacity as well as delivering adaptation itself.

Our services include:

• Organizing and facilitating stakeholder engagement programmes
• Integrated assessments of organizations’  capacity to adapt
• Training and capacity building for a variety of stakeholders
• Identifying trade-offs and conflicts between adaptation and mitigation policies
• Climate change impacts scoping studies and priorities for cross-sector adaptation
• Developing climate change action plans at the local, regional and national level, using bespoke tools and processes.

References:

• Organizing the European Climate Change Programme II (ECCPII)’s 1st Working Group on adaptation, including supporting the development of the EU Green Paper on adaptation – European Commission
• Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies: supporting European climate policy (ADAM) - an integrated research project running to 2009 that will lead to a better understanding of the trade-offs and conflicts between adaptation and mitigation policies
• Climate Change Audit: identifying and developing actions to be taken within the organization relating to both mitigation and adaptation. – Countryside Council for Wales
• Climate Change Menu - stakeholder-driven developing a municipal climate change action plan for mitigation and adaptation – Hastings and Bexley local authorities, UK
• Developing the regional Climate Change Programme of Action (adaptation and mitigation) with a stakeholder engagement programme and consultation process - East Midlands Development Agency.