Bryan BoultHead of Environment Futures and Sustainability

Hampshire County Council

EEA Expert Meeting on Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation Indicators,

September 2008

ESPACE: European Spatial Planning: Adapting to Climate Events

Key Results and Recommendations

Issues for North West Europe

High population densities

Valuable ecological assets

High economic prosperity

Climate change will impact significantly on all of these sectors.

Spatial planning systems have a crucial part to play in minimising these impacts but they currently do not take account of climate change.

Barriers

Lack of institutional frameworks to support adaptation

to climate change

Lack of policies / legislation

Lack of awareness amongst planners and decision

makers

Complexity of planning systems / frameworks

Inability of institutional frameworks to support

adaptation

Uncertainty of impacts of climate change

Uncertainty of extent of adaptation required

Uncertainty of which adaptation measures are

appropriate or will be successful

ESPACE Aims

Ensure adaptation is recognised and incorporated into spatial planning systems at the European, national, regional and local levels.

Develop adaptation strategies and policy guidance to deal with the long-term impacts of climate change.

Raise awareness amongst a wide range of stakeholders.

The Strategy“Putting adaptation at the heart of spatial planning”

1. Partners spent 4 years developing both the overarching strategic outputs and the detailed policy guidance, tools and policies

2. Working within the project was undertaken at a range of levels:

Partner specific case studies Case study specific smaller groupings pf partners Collectively as part of the wider ESPACE

partnership3. Workshops and conferences built on the work of the

partnership but also allowed for input from a much wider audience

4. Range of outputs have been delivered targeted at different levels (i.e. organisations, through to governments to the European Union

14 Recommendations

The 14 recommendations are the “fundamental principles” of the ESPACE Project

Each recommendation is complemented by a series of case studies, tools and examples of policy advice

Aimed at all levels of governance including European Institutions, national governments and regional and local authorities.

3 Key Recommendations

1. Make Climate Change adaptation a core objective of spatial planning

2. Look beyond the lifetime of your plan by understanding your climate risks

3. Combine two approaches for integrating adaptation into spatial planning

Managing change Risk management

ESPACE Extension

Through the delivery of ESPACE, it became apparent that there are some major obstacles to the delivery and implementation of adaptation to climate change at the local level.

The ESPACE Partnership felt strongly that there was a need to investigate both what the key barriers are and how to overcome them.

This led to the ESPACE Extension.

The basis to the Extension was to better understand what needs to change in order for adaptation to climate change to be implemented effectively by the relevant local implementation/delivery agencies.

Conclusion – Review of Policy Barriers

This research shows that adaptation is not yet viewed as an overarching policy objective, nor yet is it considered essential to our ability to meet other policy objectives, like sustainability.

In undertaking this work, we assumed that many of the barriers to adaptation would come from policy itself, but we found that there are significant barriers in the perception and interpretation of policy. This finding underlines the importance of combining change management and risk management approaches for integrating adaptation into spatial planning.

This piece of work has uncovered areas that need further investigation in terms of climate change adaptation, and this report formed the baseline for other projects in the ESPACE Extension, which investigated perceived vs. real barriers in spatial planning policy.

Conclusions from Partners’ Actions Increase the adaptation knowledge of and relevance

for leaders and decision-makers Pursue policy consistency through shared guidelines Tap into existing partnerships and networks Improve access to information and advice Need to convince local politicians of urgency Difficulty to define climate proof due to complexity Lack of instruments and guidance to deliver policies Cash for knowledge building in practice promised by

Government Do not put climate change in special box Multi functionality is essential (air quality + heat

islands, infrastructure + flood defense) Cross sectoral approach (organisations) Professional boundaries must be crossed

Conclusions

How national governments set legislation and the culture of how legislation is interpreted, is an important influence on whether policies pose barriers to adaptation

At the European level, consistency of legislation allows experiences to be shared across the Member States, but also creates problems with a “one size fits all” approach.

EEA Workshop Discussion Points

1. How best to structure the monitoring of adaptation actions?

2. How to possibly develop vulnerability indicators?

Key Issues at National LevelClimate proof !?Urgency? Responsibilities? Behavioural change?How should we deal with uncertainties?How do we reserve space for investments (possibly) needed in the future?

Analysis of vulnerabilityHow are threats and opportunities of areas analysed and used?StrategiesWhich spatial strategies are carried out to enhance resilience and flexibility?MeasuresHow are climate proof measures realised in the development, planning and design of areas, housing districts and buildings?

Outline Strategic Vulnerability AnalysisBefore the plan process begins use 3 key ESPACE recommendations

To achieve truly ‘sustainable development’, make climate change adaptation a core activity in spatial planning

Climate change adds an extra dimension to planning - it can challenge basic assumptions on availability of land (change the shape of the country) and its uses over medium and long term. Adopt 2 main approaches :- Change & Risk Management

Prepare to review national planning laws, policies, codes etc to ensure climate risks are considered over whole of the decision lifetime

Reduce vulnerability + enhance adaptive capacity

Resistance, resilience and flexibility (= climate proof)

Risk management Sensible use of natural systems (soil, water, air

and ecosystems)

Prevent social and economic disruption Minimise undesirable effects Identify opportunities (economic, spatial

quality)

National Strategy

Adaptation / Resilience Indicators

Most of the current indicators being used to measure adaptation are process indicators – i.e. they monitor progress made in identifying adaptation actions in different sectors and how far they have been implemented.

Climate change presents a wide variety of pressures, and the relative urgency of these pressure may change over time, from area to area, and as our response to climate change develops.

Therefore it is impossible to generatea single set of indicators to measure resilience for all time.

Indicators

It is important to consider the development of indicators for assessing both vulnerability and adaptation within the context of spatial planning.

1. Understanding the risks / vulnerability 2. Assessing resilience 3. How to adapt to risks and improve resilience –

i.e. methodology – includes spatial planning, behaviour change etc.

4. Measuring progress – output indicators, longer-term progress, data issues

5. Reviewing “plans”

Indicators - Conclusions

Output indicators for adaptation can only be realistically developed for the local level.

Generic “global” indicators are only likely to measure process not outputs.

Spatial planning does provide an opportunity to tie these two issues together to develop a coherent approach to adaptation.

ESPACE – An Innovative Approach

Organisational Change Tool

What enables one organisation to tackle climate change more effectively than another?

How does an organisation know when it's stalled on the climate change agenda?

What does an organisation have to do next in order to progress?

Organisational Change Tool

Improving the capacity of organisations to respond to climate change through:

Identifying where organisations and projects stand in key performance areas

Targeting improvements Maintaining progress Defining work programmes

Organisational Change Tool

Organisational Change Tool

6 Distinct Levels:

Level 6 – The ‘Champion Organisation’ Level 5 – Strategic Resilience Level 4 – Breakthrough Project Level 3 – Efficient Management Level 2 – Stakeholder Responsive Level 1 – Core Business Focused

Further Information

www.espace-project.org