Climate Ready Clyde releases full climate risk and opportunity assessment for Glasgow City Region

Full scope of climate change impacts for Glasgow City Region made available to support efforts to build climate resilience

Assessment available to support organisations and individuals preparing for climate change, as City Region prepares strategic response

Climate Ready Clyde has today released its full assessment of the potential impacts of climate change for Glasgow City Region. The Climate Risk and Opportunity Assessment for Glasgow City Region was undertaken for Climate Ready Clyde’s members to support Glasgow City Region’s Climate Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan and their own planning. The assessment will also support wider organisations and the public to build their own resilience to future climate change.

The work comes amid significant efforts from the finance sector to mobilise the resources needed to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. In the past week, the UK was one of over twenty countries agreeing to use the financial system to mobilise resources for adaptation and mitigation as part of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action. At the same time, the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and other central Bank Governors have been urging public authorities to share and if possible make publicly available any climate-risk data.

The website and supporting reports build on Climate Ready Clyde’s summary that was launched with leaders from across Glasgow City Region in October 2018, and set out a detailed assessment of the 67 climate change risks and opportunities facing the area, based on current emissions projections. The assessment also sets out the types of actions needed through to 2025 to manage them to the end of the century.

Alongside, Climate Ready Clyde commissioned an economic assessment of the implications of climate change, and the costs and benefits from each of the 67 individual risks or opportunities. Led by Paul Watkiss Associates, this highlights that climate change is projected to create risks which could cost Glasgow City Region £400m a year by the 2050s, but also significant benefits from reduced heating costs and winter deaths. The assessment also highlights that Glasgow City Region has a small, but important sector helping society adapt to climate change which employs 8,000 people and generates £146m a year in sales.

Commenting on the release, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham MSP said:

“Climate Ready Clyde is a trailblazing collaborative partnership that works across the Glasgow City Region to help minimise the risks that climate change presents for the local economy, society and environment.

Having provided £100,000 to help launch the initiative, I am pleased that additional support from the Scottish Government is enabling Climate Ready Clyde’s partners to publish this important research, which shows that adaptation makes economic sense for the City Region. I hope to see this incorporated within the emerging Strategy and Action Plan to make Glasgow City Region more climate ready.”

The information now puts Glasgow City Region amongst some of the most informed places in the world on how climate change could affect the region’s economy, society and the environment. It will be used to inform preparation of Glasgow City Region’s first Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan, due in 2020. Climate Ready Clyde’s independent chair, Professor James Curran said:

“We are aware of growing public awareness and concern around the potential for climate breakdown. The release highlights the full extent of the risks facing Glasgow City Region. In doing so it makes a strong case for deep emissions cuts, and the need for adaptation by all organisations across Glasgow City Region to help protect our way of life and our economic prosperity.”

Curran continued:

“Work on Glasgow City Region’s adaptation strategy and action plan is already well underway, and we’ll be working with a wide range of partners over the next year to deliver an ambitious but credible plan. In the meantime we hope this release will promote discussion amongst people and organisations about what climate change means for them, strengthening the case for organisations to act to protect our citizens, particularly those who are most vulnerable to the future impacts.”

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Media Enquiries

All enquiries to:

Kit England
07791 332250
kit@sniffer.org.uk

Notes to editors

1. Climate Ready Clyde is a cross-sector initiative funded by public and private member organisations and Scottish Government to create a shared Vision, Strategy and Action Plan for an adapting Glasgow City Region. Its funders are: East Dunbartonshire Council, East Renfrewshire Council, Glasgow City Council, North Lanarkshire Council, South Lanarkshire Council, Scottish Government, SEPA, SGN, SPT, Transport Scotland, University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde and West Dunbartonshire Council. It is managed and delivered by sustainability charity, Sniffer.
2. The Climate Risk and Opportunity assessment for Glasgow City Region is available on the Climate Ready Clyde website at: http://www.climatereadyclyde.org.uk
3. The Economic Implications of Climate Change Study was funded by Scottish Government. The work has also has received co-funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme COACCH project (CO-designing the Assessment of Climate CHange costs. It was delivered by Paul Watkiss Associates.
4. The study on the Adaptation Economy for Glasgow City Region was funded by Scottish Government and delivered by k-Matrix.
5. A briefing on the merits of the risk assessment approach has recently been published in the Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers and is available here.
6. More detail on the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action is available here:
7. The recent letter from the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney and others is available here.