Climate change - adaptation programme: progress report 2021

Chapter 6: Progress towards "our coastal and marine environment being valued, enjoyed, protected and enhanced and having increased resilience to climate change"

Scotland's diverse marine environment is home to a wide range of habitats and species which continue to provide economic benefits for people, industry and society. Iconic Scottish landscapes can be found on its coasts which stretch for over 11,000 miles. Aside from being a tourist attraction and asset in and of itself, the marine and coastal environment offers a sizeable contribution to the economy with Scottish waters covering 62% of the UK's domestic exclusive economic zone.

Scotland's coastal waters are in good ecological conditions and over 37% of our seas have been designated as protected areas, well over the current target of 10% as defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi targets and exceeding the new targets of 30% by 2030 (which are still under negotiation). However, as the impacts of climate change increase and place pressure on our coastal and marine environments, it is crucial to keep building resilience to ensure that this good ecological status is maintained for future generations.

Examples of progress on cross-cutting policies in support of this outcome

National Marine Plan (NMP) - Marine industries and the marine environment have an important role to play in achieving Scotland's climate change ambitions. The NMP contains a general policy requirement that planners and decision makers act in the way best calculated to mitigate, and adapt to, climate change. Consideration of mitigation and adaptation measures is also woven throughout the policies and objectives of the sectoral chapters. A review of the NMP was published on 23 March 2021. It concluded that whilst the current NMP provides for consideration of climate change impacts throughout its policies and objectives, over the last two years a new level of urgency and intensity has developed around the need to tackle what is now recognised as a global climate emergency. This is required to respond to "the transformational impact of the climate emergency on the marine space" and help ensure that the marine planning framework can best address the challenges cause by these impacts. Ministers will make a decision later in 2021 on whether to amend or replace the National Marine Plan.

Biodiversity Strategy - A new deep sea marine reserve was designated in addition to four in-shore Marine Protected Areas and 12 Special Protection Areas, resulting in 37% of Scottish seas designated for nature conservation. For more information on the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy see Chapter 5.

Examples of progress on policies in support of sub-outcome that: "Scotland's coastal and marine biodiversity, ecosystems and landscapes are adaptable to the changing climate

Dynamic Coast -The Dynamic Coast project provides a national evidence base on coastal erosion in Scotland, helping to support planning decisions on the coast and promoting coastal change adaptation.

Dynamic Coast 1 (DC1), published in 2017, provided businesses and communities with readily interpretable evidence and modelling of anticipated erosion. It showed that since the 1970s there has been a 39% increase in the extent of shores eroding landwards, and a doubling of the average erosion rate to 1 m/yr. This coastal response is consistent with climate change and is expected to quicken as sea levels continue to rise.

Dynamic Coast 2 (DC2) project will launch in 2021. It will assess the impacts of sea level rise on already increasing erosion rates helping us to become 'sea level wise' by planning and adapting now for our changing climate. With data updates and new tidal surveys DC2 will show how erosion is affecting more shores than was the case in DC1 and anticipate how erosion will further impact the soft coast by 2100.

Marine Litter Strategy - Work progresses under the original Strategy published in 2014, delivering policies and legislation to promote behaviour change, reduce sources of marine and coastal litter, improve marine litter monitoring and strengthen national and international co-ordination. Significant progress has been made to address plastic pollution at a macro and micro level in conjunction with work under the terrestrial National Litter Strategy. Both strategies are under review with refreshed versions expected in 2021. Furthermore, Marine Scotland funds Local Coastal Partnerships around Scotland's coastline which all have a role to play in supporting beach cleans and other efforts to reduce marine litter and Marine Scotland Science is collecting a range of marine litter data on MSS trawlers. Further policies to reduce marine litter can be found on the Marine Scotland website.

Scotland's Future Fisheries Management Strategy - The Future Fisheries Management Strategy (FFMS), covering the period to 2030, was published in December 2020 and details Scotland's vision for being a word-class fishing nation which delivers responsible and sustainable fisheries management. Protecting our natural assets is a fundamental part of FFMS and the strategy reflects the Scottish Government's commitment to taking positive collaborative steps to address the issues around climate change (both adaptation and mitigation). As part of the FFMS we set out a series of actions to help develop our understanding of the potential changes that climate change will bring and the impacts those changes will have on our fishing activities, and also to understand the contributions that the fisheries sector itself makes to climate change and what we can do to reduce its impact.

Examples of progress on policies in support of sub-outcome that: "Scotland's coastal and marine environment and its contribution to wider societal adaptation is enjoyed, valued and maintained

Scotland's Marine Assessment - Marine Scotland continue to monitor Scotland's marine and freshwater ecosystems to document the impacts of climate change. Scotland's Marine Assessment 2020 (an update of Scotland's Marine Atlas 2011) was published in December 2020. It is now available to access as an online portal. One of the headline messages from the assessment is that "climate change is the most critical factor affecting the marine environment". The assessment includes a dedicated chapter with further information on how the effects of climate change are already evident in the marine environment and how the marine environment is likely to change in future. These impacts include changes to the microscopic life forms that form the base of the marine food web, distributional shifts in the range of many species, and changes in abundance and body size of fish species (including several commercially important species).

Monitoring Climate Change Impacts in Scottish Seas - Marine Scotland Science's monitoring of the environment and ecosystem in Scotland's coastal and oceanic marine zone continued in the past 12 months, although data collection of many monitoring programmes was reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A highlight in 2020 was the deployment of a new near-real-time monitoring buoy at the Scottish Coastal Observatory (SCObs) site in Loch Ewe (funded through the COMPASS Interreg project) to collect information on the environmental conditions. Measurements of ocean acidification (a reduction in pH due to the ocean's uptake of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide) are sparse in coastal environments, and the SCObs programme has expanded its discrete water sampling and sensor data collection programme to address this.

Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) - Marine Scotland has continued to support the work of the MCCIP. MCCIP published its latest report card in January 2020, which states, among other key findings, that warming seas, reduced oxygen and ocean acidification are already affecting UK coasts and seas. The report card and its scientific background papers contributed significantly to the scientific evidence base informing Scotland's Marine Assessment 2020 Climate Change chapter (see above). The publication of the report card concluded MCCIP's reporting cycle, and an analysis of research gaps to improve information for the next report card is now in progress. The MCCIP business plan 2020-2025 was launched in April 2020, and will drive the partnership's activities in the next 5 years.

Crown Estate Scotland Climate Change Action Plan - In February 2021, Crown Estate Scotland published its 2021-23 Climate Change Action Plan which includes actions to contribute to, as well as report on, climate change adaptation. For example, the Plan commits to a new approach to considering financial and wider value benefits in decision-making. This approach will use indicators for monitoring progress on actions to increase resilience and reduce risk in the face of climate change.

How the Adaptation Scotland Programme is supporting this outcome

Adaptation Scotland is a partner in the Dynamic Coast project and is involved in developing and promoting the outputs from its second phase (see above).