In its independent assessment of the first Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme (SCCAP), the Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Climate Change Committee (ASC) described the programme as:

‘…a significant first step to bring together existing policies and activities into a more coherent programme. Moving forward, it could be improved in terms of its coverage, governance and impact.’

With this in mind ClimateXChange has prepared the following papers to frame discussions with Scottish Government on priorities for the CXC adaptation research resource:

• Three climate change adaptation research issues papers based on the issues identified in the independent assessment and the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2017, literature searches, and stakeholder engagement. The three papers cover the themes in the SCCAP – Natural Environment, Buildings and Infrastructure Networks, and Society, and provide a long-list of possible research to support the development of the second SCCAP due in 2019. Though framed with a view to fit the policy process leading to the second SCCAP, many of the proposed projects are not achievable in the timescale. Some projects would also benefit from the climate information that will be published with the UKCP18.
• A paper looking at monitoring and evaluation in relation to adaptation outcomes at local and national level. This takes in reporting relating to the Climate Change (Scotland) Act from local authorities, Scottish Government and the Committee on Climate Change. Recommendations are also based on international best practice on climate change adaptation M&E.

This summary paper draws together the research that could be delivered through the CXC resource, and through coordinating and initiating research delivered elsewhere. We focus on the evidence gaps where research would help develop indicators (connected to recommendations on monitoring and evaluation), scoping studies, and options for research to develop a systems approach to adaptation policy.

Recent experience has focused minds on flooding but we are conscious of the risk relating to all forms of extreme weather events, and recognise the importance of understanding potential impacts from e.g. drought or storm force winds as specifications are refined.

Climate projections are an important tool in assessing the impacts climate change will have.

We have produced two forward-looking reports that provide a firm evidence base for what we know about future temperature and precipitation based on best available climate science. They are a complement to Sniffer’s climate trends handbook 

The information in the reports and the at-a-glance presentation will be useful for:

• helping organisations prepare their Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP’s)
• helping organisations undertake their Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessments
• helping to justify collaborative partnership working on shared issues (e.g. Climate Ready Clyde)
• informing investment decisions
• informing spatial strategy and policy direction within emerging development plans
• identifying business risk and opportunities
• preparing developer toolkits for adaptation
• training and capacity building
• identifying future research needs
• preparing briefings

During a citizens’ jury, participants need to learn more about the topic at hand before they go on to deliberate the issue and agree collective recommendations. Citizens’ juries are one of several deliberative processes, which are a useful ‘tool’ in the toolbox of policy practitioners. Such processes have been used in a variety of ways to support decision making processes.

Following ClimateXChange’s project on citizens juries we have reviewed ten similar projects to understand how witnesses are being involved in different ways.

The report looks at a range of issues relating to the expert witnesses, including scope and selection, recruitment, and their specific roles. A more detailed research report will also be published at a later point.

A key aspect of the Scottish Government’s aspirations is inclusive economic growth. That is, growth across the income distribution. This project looked at the pattern of uptake of small-scale (domestic) photovoltaic devices under the UK-wide Feed in Tariff programme.

The feed-in tariff (FiT) was introduced in April 2010 for small-scale renewable electricity technologies in Great Britain. This promised the installing household a fixed price per unit of electricity – comprised from a “generation” tariff which was differentiated by technology, and an “export” tariff which was technology-blind. FITs have spurred significant development, particularly of Photovoltaic (PV) systems. During our sample period of the first 26 months of operation, over 1GW of domestic renewable electricity capacity and almost 300,000 installations were added. In all, 99.5% of these installations were PV, and 98.7% of capacity was in PV systems.

We found that installation of domestic scale PV devices is a financial, rather than an environmental consideration. There is also a clear early adopter advantage with respect to these renewable devices and our models suggest that the rate of uptake of household renewable energy devices in one area is spatially dependent upon the uptake in neighbouring areas.

As a spatially- and income-blind levy on electricity consumption, and given that uptake is greatest in wealthier areas, policies like FiTs could exacerbate economic inequalities between wealthier and less wealthy areas.

The UK has a rich history of wave energy technology innovation stretching back to 1976 when it launched its first wave energy programme. Whilst funding was discontinued in the 1980s a new programme was established in the 2000s as wave energy was considered a critical solution to meeting the government’s climate change, energy and economic objectives. Despite committing approximately $150m to wave energy development over the past 15 years the UK has still failed to deliver a commercially viable wave energy device. This raises questions about the effectiveness of government policy designed to support wave energy innovation.

In this seminar Dr Matthew Hannon, Chancellor’s Fellow of Technology and Innovation at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde’s Business School, presented research examining how the level and type of innovation support from UK government has contributed to this slow progress and how these weaknesses could be addressed to help accelerate wave energy innovation in the future.

The research finds that government policy was indeed partly to blame for this slow progress including poor coordination of policy support, duplication of investment, stop-start R&D programmes that fostered knowledge depreciation and schemes that encouraged developers to go ‘too big too soon’. Despite these failures significant ‘policy learning’ has taken place, triggering a major reconfiguration of UK wave energy innovation support such as a refocusing on component versus device development, treating wave and tidal energy innovation separately and greater coordination of innovation programmes. Even so outstanding policy recommendations include strengthening coordination between UK and Scottish governments and collaboration between universities and device developers.

Finally, the research finds that government policy wasn’t the only factor that contributed to this slow progress such as developers overpromising and under-delivering, as well as the high capital cost and practical difficulties associated with device testing at sea.

The Scottish Government initiated the Climate Conversations project to encourage discussion about climate change with the Scottish public.  To support this conversation ClimateXChange was asked to develop a framework,  including process design and methodology, for holding conversation on how Scotland can become a low carbon country, as well as highlighting the action people can take now to make this vision a reality.

Together the outputs answer three main questions:

• What is the most appropriate design for a replicable series of public conversations around climate change in Scotland?
• What methodologies and materials should be used during the conversations to ensure objectives are achieved?
• What are the key findings from pilot conversations with the public regarding: public knowledge of, attitudes towards and engagement with climate change; policies to address climate change; and the future transition to a sustainable low carbon society?

The project found that:

• There is very little scepticism about climate change
• People knew enough about climate change to be able to talk about different societal responses
• You don’t need to be a climate expert to have a conversation about climate change
• People really enjoyed taking part in the conversations

Scottish Government have further to the research project designed the ‘How to’ Guide’ as an accessible tool available to all groups, organisations and individuals to use in holding their own conversations.

The findings and guide to holding conversations, including how to record the findings, are presented in four publications:

The research was conducted by Climate Outreach, working with consultants from the Surefoot Effect. Read more about Climate Outreach’s work on their website.

Flooding represents one of the key threats facing Scotland’s natural and built environment, communities and economic activity. The planning system has a crucial role to play in ensuring that people, property, infrastructure, and sensitive environmental assets are free from current and future flood risks.

This project assessed how Scottish local planning authorities are implementing national land use planning policies on flood risk. It focused on the two stages of land-use policy: development planning and development management. 16 Local Development Plans (LDPs) were assessed to determine how local authorities have considered flood risk in developing their local plans. Sample case studies from the same local authorities were assessed to determine how planning policies were applied in practice in relation to planning applications.

The study found that the LDP process is effective in applying national land use planning policies on flooding. However, there are opportunities to improve the efficiency of the process. For example, early consultation with SEPA and applying flood risk assessment methods consistently to inform how land is allocated for development could reduce administrative burden in developing LDPs.

While all of the LDPs examined were consistent with Scottish Planning Policy, the study found that local flooding polices are not consistently being applied through the management of development applications. This has resulted in developments in areas at potentially significant risk of flooding.

The report provides recommendations focused on improving the assessment of flood risk, including the impacts of climate change, as well as prioritising to avoid flood risk when allocating land and managing local developments.

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 sets a target to reduce Scotland’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. In addition, the Scottish Government has set a target for 100% of Scotland’s demand for electricity to be met from renewable sources by 2020.

Scottish Government commissioned ClimateXChange to assess the effectiveness of greenhouse gas emission reduction policies in Local Development Plans (LDPs) in promoting the uptake of Low and Zero-Carbon Generating Technologies (LZCGT).

14 Local Authorities have adopted specific Section 3F policies in their Local Development Plans since 2012. Five of these authorities implemented the policies early enough to be in a position to provide sufficient data sets for the analysis in this study.

The Aberdeen region is host to a diverse population of community-based initiatives active in the energy, transport, food, and waste domains.

In 2014, 65 community groups across the City of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire (the Aberdeen region) in Scotland were surveyed as part of the EU funded TESS project . This report provides a synthesis of that unique dataset. Insights will be relevant for those who are designing or administering funding and support programmes for community-based initiatives, particularly those with an environmental focus.

Extreme weather events can result in significant costs across a range of local authority services. Research indicates that extreme events will increase both in frequency and intensity with a changing climate, so it is critical to explore the cost and benefit of different adaptation responses. This will help decision makers draw the impact of climate change into planning and management processes.

This project is focused on understanding the costs of risk management, and how capturing current costs is a key element in making decisions for the future, e.g. risk management based on climate projections (2040s or 2050s).

First we explored the evidence for weather-related expenditure by Aberdeenshire Council over the past five years. We found that there were financial impacts but that the available data can provide a very limited indication of the true costs. 
Read the report Weather related costs to Aberdeenshire Council

A second phase concentrated on what lessons we could learn from the flood ‘event’ during the winter of 2015/2016. The project explored the costs of dealing with the impact of the flooding, and suggested possible tools to support better informed decision-making. 
Read the report Counting the costs of extreme events – an Aberdeenshire case study

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 places a duty on all public bodies in Scotland to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation when carrying out their functions. This research will inform best practice across local authorities and the broader public sector in Scotland.