Rachel holds an MSc in Climate Change and Sustainable Development
REPLAY: What to do next when assessing climate risks
Rachel Toresen – Owuor
19 Nov 2025
Introduction
Local authorities had been asked whether they had included climate as a corporate risk and whether their services and assets were prepared for extreme weather becoming the new normal. The reality of climate change was no longer distant; it had already arrived.
Conclusion
Following a winter marked by widespread flooding and three heatwaves during summer 2025, councils faced increasing financial and operational risks to service delivery, community resilience, and recovery. Building resilience had shifted from a sustainability objective to a fundamental necessity.
The webinar explored how councils could move beyond completing risk assessments to making informed decisions about future service design and asset management. Recent articles had highlighted the growing challenge of adapting buildings to a world that is 2°C warmer, as well as the emerging issue of communities and places becoming uninsurable due to flood risk. These developments underscored the urgency for councils to rethink how they prepared for a future shaped by extreme weather.
The session featured Erin Owain from Howden Group, who led climate risk and resilience work across Wales, and Lucy Hoggins from Resilience Sustainable Solutions, who supported organisations with climate strategies, ESG programmes, and resilience planning. They shared practical insights on turning climate risk assessments into meaningful action.
Participants considered how they would use the risk assessments they had completed to inform decisions and begin implementing adaptation measures. Local Partnerships’ Climate Adaptation Toolkit had already helped many authorities develop these assessments and supported them in thinking about the crucial question of “what next?”
The webinar also examined whether it is possible to put a price on resilience. Understanding both the cost of adaptation and the far greater costs of inaction and uninsurability was shown to be essential. By leading this conversation, councils were encouraged to position themselves as thought leaders. Completing a risk assessment was only the first step; the greater challenge lay in quantifying the cost of not adapting, and Local Partnerships highlighted how they could support authorities in taking that next step.
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