We asked, you answered – local authorities’ climate adaptation plans and actions

Advancing local and central government collaboration in climate change adaptation

On Tuesday 28 March, Rachel Toresen-Owuor, Programme Director, Climate, at Local Partnerships presented at the LGA’s Advancing local and central government collaboration in climate change adaptation” webinar, chaired by Andrew Richmond.

Rachel presented a summary of the research we have conducted with local authorities on their climate adaptation plans and actions. She highlighted the seven key themes that have emerged from the research and fed back to the LGA and Defra for consideration when producing the third iteration of the National Adaptation Programme, due for publication this summer.

Dan McCartney from Defra also presented at the webinar, mentioning the key chapters for inclusion in the NAP, with a focus on working together and mainstreaming adaptation into local authority focus.

We also heard from Dr Muriel Bonjean-Stanton from the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission, who presented on their regional climate adaptation and resilience programme, highlighting the importance of working together and gaining support and engagement from all areas of the authority, including the support of the chief executives. This sentiment was echoed by Chantelle Warner from Hertfordshire Climate Change and Sustainability Partnership (HCCSP), in a pre-recorded video shared at the session, summarising the work of the climate adaptation sub group and the importance of having a top-down approach.

The final speaker at the webinar was Victoria Ramsey from the Met Office. Victoria was presenting the new climate projections explorer platform which is specific for local authorities, and will hopefully be launched in the summer. For more information and to be kept up to date on this please email: urbanclimateservices@metoffice.gov.uk

For all slides from the webinar please see the LGA website.

Our climate adaptation toolkit can be accessed here. We have plans to update the toolkit and complimentary risk tool as a result of feedback gathered through engagement with the sector, so please ensure you are on our mailing list to receive notification of when updates have been made.