Climate adaptation in the UK: Meeting the challenge at the local level

The Climate Change Committee’s clear (serious) warning

The Climate Change Committee’s 2025 Progress Report to Parliament delivers a sobering assessment of the UK’s climate adaptation efforts. Despite growing evidence of climate impacts, from record-breaking heatwaves to the wettest 18-month period on record, the UK’s preparations for climate change remain “inadequate” across all sectors.

The report highlights that adaptation progress is “too slow, has stalled, or is heading in the wrong direction,” with none of the 46 required outcomes showing ‘good’ implementation. While some policy frameworks have improved, the Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) has failed to drive the necessary shift toward effective adaptation action.

As climate hazards intensify, the stakes for local authorities couldn’t be higher. By 2050, approximately 8 million properties could face flood risk, sea levels will continue rising, and more intense heatwaves will impact community health and infrastructure. The report warns that without additional adaptation now, UK policy will increasingly lock in future climate risks.

The CCC report identifies four key areas where urgent government action is needed:

1. Improve objectives and targets: Develop clear, measurable sectoral targets with specific roles for government, private sector, and households
2. Improve coordination across government: Better integrate adaptation with wider resilience efforts and create coherent policy responses to climate risks
3. Integrate adaptation within all relevant policies: Ensure sufficient resources for climate resilience planning across government
4. Implement monitoring, evaluation and learning across all sectors: Establish coordinated data collection to track adaptation progress and climate risks

The report underscores that the current midpoint of NAP3’s lifetime (2023-2028) must serve as a turning point for a fresh approach to national climate resilience.

How Local Partnerships is addressing the challenge

Local Partnerships is directly supporting local authorities in responding to these critical priorities through our comprehensive Climate Adaptation Toolkit and services.

Our approach aligns with and addresses each of the CCC’s key recommendations:

1. Clarifying objectives, targets, and roles

The CCC emphasises the need for “clear overarching adaptation objectives” with “guidance for departments to formulate quantitative sectoral targets.” Our Climate Adaptation Toolkit provides a structured five-step process that helps local authorities:

• Develop clear, locally relevant (context-specific) adaptation objectives
• Understand and define the specific roles and responsibilities across council departments
• Establish measurable targets appropriate to local circumstances
• Clarify the respective roles of the local authority, private sector stakeholders, and communities

Our Risk and Opportunities Matrix, which maps all 61 CCRA3 risks against different council service areas and authority types, enables authorities to prioritise their adaptation efforts based on their specific remit and local context.

2. Improving coordination across services

The CCC report highlights weak integration of adaptation with wider resilience efforts. Our toolkit directly addresses this through:

• Facilitating cross-departmental workshops that improve collaboration between service areas
• Providing frameworks for identifying and managing interdependencies between different council services
• Supporting emergency planning functions to test for climate-related emergencies
• Bridging technical guidance from national bodies with practical local government implementation

Our work supporting Cardiff Capital Region demonstrates this approach in action. By bringing together multiple councils, we facilitated knowledge sharing across 10 organisations, supporting the development of a shared adaptation risk register capturing activity across various stakeholders within the region.

3. Integrating adaptation into all relevant policies

The CCC recommends ensuring “climate adaptation planning is supported with sufficient resources across government” and that “climate resilience is adequately incorporated” into strategies and plans. Our support helps authorities:

• Review the adequacy of existing plans against climate risks
• Develop risk assessments and adaptive pathways appropriate to local circumstances
• Embed adaptation considerations into core service planning
• Identify opportunities to incorporate adaptation into existing policy frameworks

Our work with Cambridgeshire County Council exemplifies this approach. Through focused engagement with senior leaders across service areas, and workshops with officers we identified climate risks and new actions, we are helping to integrate these findings into the Council’s Corporate Risk Register.

4. Implementing monitoring, evaluation, and learning

The CCC report identifies “insufficient monitoring and evaluation” as a key barrier to effective progress. Our toolkit addresses this by:

• Providing frameworks for regular monitoring of adaptation actions
• Recommending appropriate indicators to track progress
• Facilitating evaluation of adaptation effectiveness
• Supporting knowledge sharing and learning between authorities

Addressing interdependencies and service coordination

A particular strength of our approach is addressing the complex interdependencies between local authority services, a key concern highlighted in the CCC report. Climate impacts rarely affect single service areas in isolation; flooding, for example, can simultaneously impact transportation, public health, housing, and emergency services.

Our Risk and Opportunities Matrix explicitly maps these interdependencies, helping authorities understand how climate risks cascade across service areas. The toolkit guides authorities through identifying these connections and developing coordinated adaptation responses.

Supporting local leadership on climate resilience

While the CCC report presents a concerning picture of national adaptation progress, local authorities have a unique opportunity to lead by example. Local Partnerships’ Climate Adaptation Toolkit and support services provide practical, accessible frameworks for local government to develop robust adaptation strategies, even in the absence of stronger national guidance.

By working collaboratively with local authorities across the UK, we’re helping to build a foundation of climate resilience from the ground up. Our approach, endorsed by the Met Office and built on best practices, enables councils to take meaningful action now, rather than waiting for national policy to catch up with the urgent reality of climate impacts.

As we navigate the critical midpoint of NAP3, Local Partnerships stands ready to support local authorities in turning the tide on adaptation progress, ensuring communities across the UK are prepared for the climate challenges ahead.