Climate change - adaptation programme: progress report 2021

Annex: Summary of risk assessment for Scotland from UKCCRA2

The UK Government is required under the 2008 UK Climate Change Act to publish a

UK wide Climate Change Risk Assessment (UKCCRA) every five years, assessing the 'risks for the UK from the current and predicted impacts of climate change'. The second UKCCRA was published in 2017.

Prior to this, in 2016, the independent UK Climate Change Committee published its Evidence Report and Synthesis Report, including a National Summary for Scotland, which provides the underpinning for the UKCCRA. Some actions identified as priorities for other parts of the UK have been shown to have a different urgency category for Scotland.

The Evidence Report used the concept of urgency to summarise the findings of the analysis, variously identifying 'more action needed', 'research priority', 'sustain current action' and 'watching brief' categories. For Scotland, it highlighted:

• The need for more action to address flood risks;
• The potential for water scarcity;
• Heat related impacts on health and wellbeing;
• Risks to the natural environment;
• Risks of food price volatility; and
• New and emerging pest and disease risks, especially for Scotland's forestry.

Table: UK Climate Change Risk Assessment: risks summary

Source - Adaptation Committee (of the Climate Change Committee)

The SCCAP2 programme responds to these priority risks within its outcomes-based framework. A list of the specific identified risks being addressed by the policies in each chapter can be found at the end of each chapter of SCCAP2.

As noted in the introduction to this report, the next statutory cycle of risk assessment and adaptation planning is now imminent. The Climate Change Committee will publish the Evidence Reports to underpin the next (third) UKCCRA in summer 2021, in advance of the UKCCRA in early 2022. That risk assessment will then in turn inform the development of the third Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme for publication in 2024.