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The climate change agenda has been dominated in recent years by the need to reduce carbon emissions to avoid or mitigate climate change. Increasingly, the debate is turning to adaptation. Climate scientists define adaptation as “adjustments in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.” In other words, it assumes a degree of dangerous climate change is now inevitable and we must adapt our behaviour in response. The effects of climate change can already be seen at home and abroad; drier summers and wetter winters in the UK, freak weather events, rising sea levels, more floods and damage to infrastructure. Since 1997, the United Kingdom Climate Impacts Programme has been co-ordinating scientific research, and uses Met Office climate change modelling to develop climate change scenarios to illustrate how our climate might change. The latest climate projections published last week - known as UKCP09 - paint a sobering picture. They show how our summers are likely to get warmer and drier, and winters warmer but wetter, with greater extremes of flood and drought. With a resolution down to 25 sq km simply by entering postcodes, UKCIP09 provides an important tool for individuals, businesses and organisations to better understand predicted climate change impacts when going about their activities and forward planning. That might be maintaining water resources, protecting critical facilities from flooding, designing our buildings with flexibility to respond to the changes in temperature, or indeed choosing where to buy a home. Many businesses and organisations are already beginning to plan ahead. Just as well, because whilst most law and policy to date has been aimed at mitigation, legislative developments have been underway in the UK and Europe to map out the changes required. The landmark Climate Change Act therefore places a duty on the UK government to identify objectives for adapting to climate change and creating proposals and policies for meeting these objectives. The Act also contains a power for government to force certain organisations to report on their assessment of climate risks and their plans to respond. Last week, alongside release of UKCIP09, the government began to consult on how it will exercise this power. It will cover many public sector organisations and utilities; for them, doing nothing is not an option. Elsewhere, in negligence cases, courts in England and Wales are likely to pinpoint documents and reports in the public domain when deciding on the extent to which a party ought reasonably to have had knowledge of a likely impact or adaptation action. Adaptation is the new climate change focus and can no longer be overlooked. For further information please contact: Andrew Whitehead, Partner
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