Climate change: Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029

Outcome Two: Communities (C)

Communities are creating climate-resilient, healthy and equitable places.

The climate emergency will change Scotland’s places. Challenges like heatwaves, flooding and accelerating sea level rise are affecting our countryside, towns and cities. These changes will only increase in the future. We know that, without adaptation action, climate change will affect people’s health and wellbeing, and widen existing inequalities.

To protect our communities, we need our places to adjust to the effects of climate change. We do this by empowering and invigorating communities and places – one of our central outcomes for ensuring a just transition. Actions to address climate impacts can deliver ‘multiple wins’ for health, wellbeing and equity.

This Outcome covers how Scotland is building community resilience to flooding, coastal change, wildfire and other extreme events. The aim is to ensure all parts of Scotland are building climate resilience though regional adaptation partnerships and support for locally-led action focused on communities vulnerable to climate impacts. This involves building climate resilient places and realising the power of our culture, heritage and creativity.

Objective: Regional and place-based collaborations (C1)

Regional collaborations are driving inclusive, effective and place-based adaptation action across all of Scotland.

SG Directorate lead: DECC

Responding to the Climate Emergency, and ensuring a just transition, requires partnership at all scales. The challenge is too big to face alone. For Scotland to flourish in a changing climate, we need to adapt together – central and local government, health boards, public bodies, communities, business, third sector, and individuals.

This objective aims to improve how Scotland agrees its priorities regionally, designs adaptation locally, and takes priority actions at a greater pace and scale.

Partnership working: central and local government

Local authorities are leading collaborations on climate adaptation in Scotland. They are founders and anchor institutions in all existing adaptation collaborations, and the Climate Change Committee has highlighted these as examples of local excellence.

• Climate delivery framework – signed in 2023, the Verity House Agreement sets out how central and local government will work in partnership across three shared priorities covering climate change, poverty and public services. In line with these priorities, COSLA and Scottish Government have established a joint climate delivery framework to foster a new, collaborative way of working. Early priorities for the framework will include climate adaptation.
• Adaptation partnership roles - working with multiple stakeholders – including central government, public bodies, local authorities, third sector, business and industry, and communities and individuals – across 2025, the Scottish Government will develop a clearer collective understanding of partnership working roles for climate adaptation action.

Regional adaptation collaborations

Scotland’s pioneering regional collaborations on climate adaptation are growing and finding their own innovative paths, for example:

• Climate Ready Clyde is a pioneering cross-sector initiative funded by 13 member organisations to create and deliver a shared vision, strategy, and action plan for 1.8 million people adapting to climate change across the Glasgow City Region.
• Highland Adapts is bringing communities, businesses, land managers, and public sector together to facilitate transformational action towards a prosperous, climate- ready Highland.
• The Outer Hebrides Community Planning Partnership has created a shared case for action being taken up by the Climate Hebrides Community Interest Company.
• Edinburgh and South East local authorities are collectively embedding climate adaptation into their ambitious economic development plans.

The next step is for the Scottish Government and others to strengthen our partnership working on adaptation, and for collaborations on adaptation action to scale up to cover the whole of Scotland and broaden out our set of delivery partners.

The Scottish Government, supported by Adaptation Scotland, will work with local partners to identify options for progressing climate adaptation partnerships in the context of local needs and priorities. Partnerships and collaborations will avoid a ‘one size fits all’ approach. We propose that action at a regional scale includes collaborating on regional risk and opportunity assessment, adaptation priority setting, and long-term planning and investment; taking a place-based approach and including diverse communities as part of action to reduce inequalities. Regional partnership is particularly important where actions in one place will affect another, or changes include relocation of infrastructure or individuals to an area that is more resilient to climate change. Key actions here are:

• Expanding regional adaptation partnerships by 2029 – across the period of this Adaptation Programme, the Scottish Government will drive collaboration on adaptation planning and investment with a broader set of partners, covering all of Scotland’s regions. The Scottish Government will work with local government and a broad range of other partners to establish regional adaptation partnerships and collaborations covering all regions in Scotland by 2029.
• Regional adaptation routemap – the Scottish Government, working with COSLA and a range of other partners, will develop a route map by 2025 for extending mature regional collaborations on adaptation to all of Scotland by 2029. This routemap will align with and support the development of an approach to Regional Just Transition plans.
• Regional Marine Plans – the Scottish Government will support the ongoing development of Regional Marine Plans by Marine Planning Partnerships in 3 of Scotland’s 11 marine regions – Shetland, Orkney, and the Clyde. These plans will include objectives relating to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change.

Local place-based collaboration

The impacts of climate change will be locally and distinctly felt, so an approach that recognises this and the importance of communities shaping the approach is vital. As a result, we are advocating a place-based approach – this is about understanding the potential of a place and coordinating action to improve outcomes, with collaboration and community participation at the heart of the process. Key to delivery are:

• Place Principle – the Place Principle (ourplace.scot) sets the overarching context for place-based working in Scotland and establishes a clear vision for collaboration around place on climate adaptation. COSLA and the Scottish Government will continue to implement the Place Principle, which promotes the need for communities, public organisations and businesses to work collaboratively with the assets and services in a place to achieve better outcomes for people and communities.
• Place Standard Tool – the Scottish Government and partners will continue to promote the use of the Place Standard Tool with a climate lens as a practical tool to support a joined up, collaborative, and participative approach to climate action within a place.
• Architecture & Design Scotland – Architecture & Design Scotland (AD&S) is a public body whose role is to promote the design of buildings and places that meet the needs of everyone in Scotland. To see the benefits of the Place Principle become an everyday reality in the way Scotland’s places are created, adapted and sustained by 2031, A&DS will: support the design and delivery of people centred climate conscious places considering adaptation and resilience to the changing climate in all our place-based work, aligned with its Corporate Plan 2024-27.
• Public Health Scotland – place-based actions that prioritise investment in the building blocks of good health and wellbeing in local places can deliver climate, health and equity co-benefits. Public Health Scotland (PHS) will work with national and local government to implement a Health in All Policies approach. This aims to ensure that climate related policies are designed to minimise the health and equity risks posed by a changing climate, maximising the potential health and equity benefits and minimising the harms. This includes scaling up capacity of partners at a local level to use public health principles, tools and approaches such as Health Impact Assessments and the Place Standard Tool with a climate lens. PHS will continue to implement its Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach 2023–2026.
• Local Place Plans and local living – the Scottish Government will continue to encourage applying the Place Principle in the planning system through the National Planning Framework 4 and preparation of regional spatial strategies and local place plans (LPPs). LPPs are community-led plans setting out proposals for the development and use of land, and whilst they are not part of the statutory development plan, they have an important role to play in informing Local Development Plans and decision-making. The Scottish Government will also continue to support the application of Planning Guidance on local living and 20-minute neighbourhoods.
• Place and Wellbeing Outcomes – Scotland’s Place and Wellbeing Outcomes describe what every place needs to enable those who live, work, and relax there to stay healthy and thrive, including in our changing climate. Crucially, it highlights that to reduce Scotland’s significant inequalities, every sector needs to be working together to take actions that deliver all the Outcomes in every place. Scottish Government will continue to support the use of Scotland’s Place and Wellbeing Outcomes and associated indicators as part of planning and evaluating place-based action, including on climate adaptation.

Objective: Locally-led adaptation (C2)

Communities and individuals are supported, informed, and able to take locally led adaptation action, supporting local priorities and resilient, healthy, and equitable places.

SG Directorate lead: DECC

Every community is unique and so is how climate change impacts them. This objective recognises that climate change is complex, but there are meaningful actions that every community can take to address it and flourish together.

It is both crucial and possible to adapt to the changing climate whilst tackling other local priorities such as such as housing, getting around, health, skills and jobs.

Through support and resources, this objective aims to enable all communities to build resilience and prepare for climate change and, at the same time, make places healthier, equitable, and more comfortable to live in.

Supporting community climate action

The Scottish Government has established a range of initiatives to support communities to take climate action in their areas.

• National network of Community Climate Action Hubs – the Scottish Government will continue to facilitate a national network of Community Climate Action Hubs. The network of Climate Action Hubs will continue to support communities to come together and engage collectively on climate action, whilst supporting the just transition to low carbon and climate resilient, healthy living and driving wider behaviour change. Up to £5.5 million will be invested in 2024-25 enabling community-led climate action through building community capacity, supporting development of local initiatives, strengthening community resilience, climate literacy training, providing seed funding and embedding climate solutions in Local Place Plans.
• Community Climate Adaptation Route map – Scotland’s Community Climate Adaptation Route map is a key resource supporting locally-led adaptation. This practical guide for communities to adapt to climate change has been developed by Adaptation Scotland in collaboration with multiple community-facing organisations. Adaptation Scotland will continue to support the national network of Climate Action Hubs to use the Route map and develop updated resources as needs are identified.

Case Study: Adaptation Scotland community resources

The Community Climate Adaptation Routemap is Adaptation Scotland's practical guide to help communities adapt to climate change. No matter what kind of community you are, there are actions you can take to build resilience, prepare for climate change, and make your area healthier, safer, and more comfortable for people and wildlife. This Routemap offers clear steps for local action groups, community councils, and development trusts to build their resilience to climate change. The Routemap can help you understand and address the impacts of climate change, explore actions to build resilience, invest in your community, carry out simple climate action projects, and learn about funding.

Supporting communities vulnerable to climate impacts

The whole Adaptation Plan aims to build Scotland’s resilience to climate change, with a focus on inclusive and place-based adaptation. This means supporting people and communities most vulnerable to climate impacts and building resilient, healthy, and equitable places.

People and communities who are more likely to be exposed to climate hazards include: rural, island and coastal communities; communities in areas at risks of flooding; urban communities at risk of the urban ‘heat island’ effect; people living in deprived areas; some occupational groups such as key workers and outdoor workers; and businesses, individuals and communities whose livelihoods are linked to the land or sea.

Different people within communities will also have varying capacity to adapt to climate change. People who require greater support to adapt, because they face additional barriers, are likely to include: people who are living in poverty or on a low income; disabled people and those with long term medical conditions; people living in some housing tenures such as private rented or social housing; people living in poor quality or temporary housing; homeless people; and displaced people.

Actions across the Adaptation Plan consider vulnerable groups, supported by the plans and policies set out below:

• Adverse Weather and Health Plan – the Adverse Weather and Health Plan 2024-2027 sets out how PHS, with support from the Scottish Government and working in partnership with others, will help to protect the health of the population from weather-related harm. The Adverse Weather and Health Plan sets out PHS’s commitment to working with partners to help mitigate, prepare for and respond to the potential health risks associated with hot and cold weather, flooding and drought. The Plan aims to help reduce the burden of disease and health inequalities associated with adverse weather events in Scotland and will consider both physical and mental health outcomes.
• National Islands Plan – we recognise that our islands are among the communities most exposed to the impacts of climate change in Scotland. Many of these impacts are already being felt – in the form of sea-level rise, coastal flooding and coastal erosion. To support climate adaptation and resilience in Scotland’s island communities, the Scottish Government will work with partners to continue to deliver the National Islands Plan, including its recognition of the strengths and vulnerabilities of island communities in relation to climate change. National Islands Plan strategic objective 9 relates to climate mitigation, adaptation and energy. A second National Islands Plan is under development and will be published in 2025. It will continue to set out the island-specific actions that the Scottish Government proposes to take to support islanders in relation to climate mitigation, adaptation and energy transition.
• Improving islands transport connectivity – Transport Scotland is aiming to publish the final versions of the Islands Connectivity Plan (ICP) Strategic Approach and the Vessels and Ports Plan by the end of 2024 (see Objective PS4 for further detail). Phases 1 and 2 of the Vessels and Ports Plan 2024-45 cover the period of the Adaptation Plan and include actions to enhance the ferry fleet’s resilience and reliability, including in response to changing weather conditions.
• Digital connectivity – digital infrastructure is an economic enabler, a key part of plans for resilient economic growth that can help build resilient communities. Through its digital programmes the Scottish Government will continue to invest over £600 million in the broadband networks of the future, through the Reaching 100% (R100) broadband programme. Around 70% of the 113,000 premises expected to be connected through the R100 contracts are in rural Scotland, with around 12,000 of these premises located in island communities. The Scottish Government will play a key role in delivering Project Gigabit procurements in Scotland, leading delivery of local (Type A) and regional (Type B) activity providing opportunities for alternative network suppliers in Scotland. We will also work alongside the UK Government to manage the UK-wide (Type C) framework in Scotland. This will allow us to align Project Gigabit with our own R100 programme. We have completed rollout of our £28.75 million Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) programme which has delivered future-proofed 4G infrastructure and services to 55 rural and island areas.
• Adaptation on the Carbon Neutral Islands – Scottish Government will deliver the Carbon Neutral Islands project, supporting island communities to lead the way in Scotland’s decarbonisation journey. Community Climate Action Plans were published in June 2023 setting out multiple steps that will support communities to reach carbon neutrality by 2040. Action taken will include climate resilience as well as adaptation. Finance strategies to support the mid to long term project delivery are under development. Such strategies will include consideration of adaptation and resilience related initiatives.
• Local Coastal Partnerships – the Scottish Government supports the work of 5 Local Coastal Partnerships (LCPs) based in different areas around the Scottish coast. The LCPs provide a hub of local and community information and expertise, and government funding supports a range of activities and initiatives to deliver local action in line with national priorities, including marine education, monitoring and stakeholder engagement with communities around issues such as climate impacts.
• Addressing Depopulation Action Plan – the wide range of actions identified by the 2024 Action Plan to Address Depopulation will support building healthy and equitable places and communities which are resilient to climate change. In turn, places which are resilient to climate change will be well placed to attract and retain populations over the longer term, for the benefit of communities, economies and public services. The actions identified cover housing, transport, digital connectivity, education, access to health and social care, childcare, blue economy, land ownership, crofting and more.
• Community adaptation learning - the Scottish Government, working through Adaptation Scotland, will continue to facilitate a collaborative community adaptation learning programme. This will include advice, training, and support in collaboration with intermediary organisations and communities. It will empower communities by enabling them to use Adaptation Scotland resources to integrate climate adaptation into wider community priorities.
• Health Impact Assessment – Public Health Scotland (PHS) will work with the Scottish Government and key partners to support implementation of recommendations from the Health Impact Assessment Scoping exercise of the draft Adaptation Plan. This will support climate action that realises ‘multiple wins’ for health and wellbeing, equity and the planet.

Recognition of the differential impacts of climate change will also be reflected in the Scottish Government’s Just Transition Plans. These Plans, covering different sectors, sites and regions will set out our approach to ensuring that people and communities can access the support they need to adapt during change, and that the costs and benefits of addressing climate change are fairly distributed.

How does climate change affect health and wellbeing?

Climate change will have wide ranging effects on our health and wellbeing. These may be direct, for example an increase in injuries due to flooding or deaths from heart disease due to high temperatures. They may be indirect, by reducing access to the building blocks of health and wellbeing in local places. For example, flooding events may cause people to lose their belongings and be displaced from home leaving them unable to connect with friends and family, unable to access school, work or vital goods or services such as healthcare, with profound and lasting impacts on mental health and wellbeing.

Many of the projected climate related risks to health could be prevented or reduced with a rapid global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions now, and effective adaptation. Considering health in climate actions taken across the building blocks of health and wellbeing, including housing, transport, greenspace, food, jobs and the economy, could deliver co-benefits for population health and equity. Wider actions, to address underlying causes of inequalities, such as poverty reduction measures, can increase resilience to climate, and other risks to health.

Climate impacts on mental health and wellbeing

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have both highlighted the risks climate change presents for population mental health and wellbeing and have called for greater understanding of these issues and the integration of considerations of these impacts in national adaptation plans (IPCC 2022, WHO 2022).

In Scotland, Ipsos Mori found that the majority (82%) of adult people in Scotland polled were either very or fairly concerned about climate change (CXC, 2022). In polling at a similar time the Mental Health Foundation found that in the UK, more than 2 in 5 young people (41% of those aged 18 to 24) reported that thoughts and feelings about climate change have a negative impact on their mental health (MHF, 2022). For younger children, BBC Newsround found in 2019 that 62% of 8-16 year olds in Scotland were worried about climate change (BBC, 2019). The impact on young people, both in terms of worrying about the future of our planet and the degradation of nature, is stark and supported by the findings in our Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment see Annex B.

In 2024, the Scottish Government, through ClimateXChange, commissioned an evidence review on “Climate change and mental wellbeing in Scotland” which found that climate change is already having an impact on people's mental health and wellbeing both through the direct effects of climate related events, for example injury or trauma from a flooding event, or indirectly as a result of disruption to livelihood, displacement, access to services or worry about future impacts. These impacts are likely to increase in future. The Scottish Government’s Chief Medical Officer recognizes that “more flooding will compound existing inequalities and the greatest health burden associated with flooding is likely to be the long-term mental health impacts” (CMO, 2024).

As is similar to other climate impacts, the impacts of climate change on population mental health are not distributed evenly and will affect some groups more than others. The research finds that there are three main factors that exacerbate a group’s experience of poor mental health outcomes:

(1) their exposure to climate-change related hazards;

(2) their wider susceptibility to or experience of poor mental health, and;

(3) their access to resources and support to help them recover.

The CXC study highlights that “climate change can also impact mental health through the psycho-social response to the awareness of its threats, termed 'eco-distress' or 'eco-anxiety.'” As above, this impact is experienced differently by different groups, with young people and other vulnerable groups (such as ethnic minorities, people from deprived and marginalised communities, and people with pre-existing health conditions) identified in the report particularly affected. It is particularly associated with a perceived lack of agency to take action. There is currently no consensus on the definition of the concept of climate anxiety, however, the CXC research identifies that it is often associated with feelings of uncertainty, unpredictability, uncontrollability, and being overwhelmed and emotions such as anger, frustration, despair, guilt, shame, and grief are part of this experience. Importantly, the review notes that: “eco-distress is not a pathological condition...[but] a rational and justified response that can also lead to pro-environmental behaviours and thoughts, with some suggesting its potentially adaptive nature.”

At the core of the Scottish Government’s approach to enabling adaptation behaviours is a systematic effort to capture the lived experiences of communities around Scotland, including their experience of climate anxiety/eco distress. This enables us to understand the obstacles that people encounter, and to identify factors likely to facilitate change.

We are taking a number of actions to improve the policy and delivery landscape on this topic:

• Research - Before the end of 2024 we will publish the CXC research “Climate Change and Mental Wellbeing in Scotland”
• Strategic approach - By end 2025, the Scottish Government, alongside Public Health Scotland, will review the findings of this forthcoming CXC research published and consider how these might help to inform future developments in relation to the Wider Social Determinants of Mental Health programme, which is being taken forward as part of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy: Delivery Plan 2023-25
• Communicating on action - Taking positive climate action can help people to manage feelings of uncertainty, or a lack of agency. In light of this, Scottish Government will consider how to encourage action through our public communications across a range of adaptation behaviours (see Annex C).
• Climate Action Hubs - The Scottish Government will support our Climate Action Hubs through share tools for holding Climate Cafes and mental health conversations related to climate change (see below Case Study)
• YoungScot resources – Recognising the rise of climate anxiety in young people, YoungScot has developed a number of resources through their AyeFeel Hub specific to feelings of anxiety around climate change. Scottish Government will promote this through the new adaptation.scot web platform.
• Youth data – Over the course of the Plan, Scottish Government will explore options for improving the evidence in Scotland about young people’s experience of poor mental health and wellbeing related to climate change
• Emergency response guidance - Scottish Government is currently updating the Preparing Scotland Guidance including a Care for People sub-group which will cover activities that are aimed at providing support to meet the practical, emotional, psychosocial and mental health needs of people affected by emergencies, including emergencies related to climate change.

Case Study : Scottish Borders Climate Action Network (SBCAN) and NHS Borders

Scottish Borders Climate Action Network (SBCAN) is one of a network of Scottish Government Climate Action Hubs. During SBCAN’s establishment phase, the team received feedback that climate anxiety was a big concern for a lot of people when discussing climate change and the future. It found that a lot of people who were working or volunteering on climate related projects shared similar concerns. In order to address this SBCAN has taken forward a number of actions:

The SBCAN team participated in a “Work that Reconnects” workshop in early 2024. a set of tools which help people come to terms with fears and worries associated with the climate emergency in a way that supports a collective transition towards a positive and thriving society. The team then ran 2 sessions with Work that Reconnects on climate anxiety at SBCAN’s Green Summit event in March 2024. These displayed an appetite for further action in this space and SBCAN have since ran a further event with 2-3 sessions planned in local communities.

Working closely with NHS Borders Public Health Team on health and wellbeing, whilst aiming to reduce climate anxiety - NHS Borders recently published a report on Climate Change Health Impacts in the Scottish Borders. Following this, SBCAN and NHS Borders are at the early stages of developing an approach to how findings from the report can be disseminated with community partners.

SBCAN worked with Change Mental Health to collaborate on a Green Summit event in March 2024 where Change Mental Health ran a well-received session on rural mental health and climate anxiety. Since then, two members of the SBCAN team have taken part in their rural mental health training and are planning a further event in September 2024 to support action on climate anxiety.

Objective: Community resilience (C3)

Communities and individuals are able and supported to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies in a way that builds future climate resilience, complements the work of emergency responders and protects those with vulnerabilities to multiple risks.

SG Directorate lead: ENFOR/DSD

Building community resilience to extreme weather is increasingly important. When emergencies happen, the best recoveries will involve learning and equip us to deal with future disruptions in a way that is equitable and protects people with more vulnerabilities.

Community resilience is defined by the Scottish Government as: “communities and individuals harnessing resources and expertise to help themselves prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies, in a way that complements the work of the emergency responders.”

It is based on a culture of preparedness, in which individuals, households, communities and organisations take responsibility to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies.

Building community resilience to flooding

Flooding is Scotland’s costliest climate hazard, with sea level rise accelerating and flooding from heavy rain events both increasing in intensity through climate change. People and communities experiencing social and economic disadvantage, and those in areas at risk of flooding may be more vulnerable. This requires Scotland to build greater community resilience to flood events, informed and supported by public sector action, including via:

• Flood Resilience Strategy - in tandem with this Adaptation Plan, the Scottish Government is developing the first Flood Resilience Strategy for Scotland. The Flood Resilience Strategy will set out what we need to do in the long term to make our communities and places more flood resilient, focusing on the three key themes of people, places, and processes. The strategy will discuss how we can best engage and empower our communities so that they can be meaningfully involved in decisions made about their places. This will include ensuring that they can access up-to-date information about their current and future flood exposure, and providing the support they need to improve their community resilience. The Strategy will consider how to enable more delivery partners to bring forward a broader range of flood resilience actions to address flooding from all sources. It will promote a collaborative, whole catchment, place-based approach, including working with nature to reduce flood impacts where appropriate. This strategy will be followed by delivery plans to translate our ambition into actions as we prepare Scotland for increased risk of flooding.
• Scottish Flood Forum – the Scottish Government will continue to support the Scottish Flood Forum, an independent charity that provides immediate support in the event of flooding to individuals and communities and working with community resilience groups in flood risk areas to help them become more resilient to future flooding events. The Scottish Flood Forum provides practical solutions for householders in making their properties flood resilient, this includes property level flood protection advice and are also able to arrange community exhibitions to show what options are available.
• Accessible flood resilience resources – the Scottish Government will work with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), the Scottish Flood Forum and others to ensure that communication materials and advice on flooding are accessible and tailored to the specific needs of different vulnerable groups.

The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 sets out roles and responsibilities for increasing flood resilience. How these responsibilities (over the next five years) relate to future climate change is set out below.

SEPA is Scotland’s national flood forecasting, flood warning and strategic flood risk management and Hydrometric Monitoring Authority.

• Hydrology Monitoring Framework – SEPA will develop a Hydrology Monitoring Framework and review how our Future Hydrometric Design can build evidence around climate change.
• SEPA flood data and information – SEPA made flood map data available to download by the public via its website in 2023. SEPA will continue to make more flood data available to download under open government licence in future.
• Flood hazard maps – SEPA will review and update our coastal and surface water flood hazard maps as necessary to include appropriate information including climate change projections.
• Flood Risk Assessment and Potentially Vulnerable Areas (PVAs) - SEPA identifies the current and future risk of flooding to communities across Scotland. SEPA will review and publish this data in 2025, to support the flood risk management planning process. SEPA will review and publish areas most at risk within Scotland (Potentially Vulnerable Areas) by December 2024.
• Flood Risk Management Plans – SEPA will review and publish flood risk management plans in December 2027, updating objectives and actions to manage flood risk. SEPA will work in partnerships with local authorities and other partners to set out actions that improve community resilience.
• Supporting flood resilience – SEPA will work closely with other organisations responsible for supporting flood resilience to ensure that a nationally consistent approach to reducing flood exposure is adopted; provide flood resilience advice to communities and land use planning in Scotland when requested; and raise awareness of flooding at a national level through education initiatives, community engagement and campaigns. In 2023, SEPA updated guidance for climate allowances for flood risk assessment in land use planning for National Planning Framework 4.

Local authorities are responsible for the implementation and maintenance of flood protection actions. Local authorities also inspect, clear and repair watercourses to reduce flood exposure and routinely maintain road gullies on public roads and highways. During severe flooding, local authorities will work with the emergency services and co-ordinate shelter for people evacuated from their homes. This is supported through:

• Local Flood Risk Management Plans – local authorities, in partnership with SEPA, Scottish Water and others, have updated Local Flood Risk Management Plans covering 2022–28. These plans supplement the Flood Risk Management Plans and detail actions to increase flood resilience, and how they will be delivered, in each potentially vulnerable area.
• Funding support – in 2016, COSLA and Scottish Ministers agreed a 10 year funding commitment to provide £42 million annually to local authorities for flood resilience through the general capital grant. An additional £150 million was committed in the Local Government capital settlement 2021-22 to 2025-26.

To increase flood resilience across Scotland, SEPA will continue to deliver and improve its flood forecasting and warning services. Awareness and alerting to promote adaptation actions around flood events will be delivered through these principal products and services.

• Scottish Flood Forecast - every day the Scottish Flood Forecast is produced by the Scottish Flood Forecasting Service (SFFS), a SEPA and Met Office partnership. It provides a three-day outlook of where flooding is likely to occur, and is published and publicised online, providing communities with the earliest possible indication of when and where flooding is expected, and therefore assist community preparation and response actions.
• Flood Guidance Statement – a similar but more detailed daily Flood Guidance Statement is also produced, giving a five-day flood risk outlook, directly to emergency responders, including transport, utilities and recognised community resilience organisations. This is designed to assist preparation and response actions by emergency responders.
• Floodline – SEPA delivers Floodline a direct flood warning service, operated 24/7, issuing messages online and by phone call, text or email, free of charge to anyone. Very specific local flood warnings, available for river or coastal flooding where this is monitored, provide between 3-6 hours’ notice that flooding is expected. Regional flood alerts that cover the whole of Scotland, and provide between 2 hours and 2 days’ notice of when flooding is possible. These provide a more general indication of flood risk within a wide area where no local flood warnings are available.
• Improved multi-hazard warning – behind the scenes, delivery of Scotland’s forecasting and warning products will be via SEPA’s new Future Flood and Incident Messaging Service (FFIMS). This will improve public accessibility, make it easier for customers to self-manage their communication preferences, and widen the scope of how flood warning information is shared, including popular digital channels. It will also enable business-friendly developments like the active issuing of water scarcity information.
• Surface water flood forecasting – SEPA will continue to progress the actions outlined in the Flood Warning Development Framework 2022-28. These include investigating options for a long-term approach to surface water flood forecasting and potential improvements to established flood warning schemes by 2028.

Managing wildfire risk

The following policies aim to reduce the risk of wildfires across Scotland and provide an effective response to wildfire incidents:

Most wildfires experienced in Scotland occur during late winter and early Spring, with a second smaller peak in late Summer and early Autumn with almost all wildfires in Scotland caused by people either accidentally or deliberately. Over the past ten years the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has handled, on average, approximately 180 outdoor fires each year classed as grassland/woodland/crops fires. Many resulted in significant damage to agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, recreational and sporting interests, threatening infrastructure, property, and life.

While the increase in the number of wildfires over the last 10 years has been small, we have seen fires covering larger areas, and there is potential in the future for fires to last for longer and exhibit more challenging fire behaviours. Climatic conditions are projected to be warmer and wetter overall with more extreme weather events including periods of water scarcity. The change in weather can impact the creation of the fuel load and fuel moisture content, potentially impacting the wildfire risk throughout the year, as well as additional challenges in putting out fires. Wildfires can lead to large amounts of carbon being released into the atmosphere, contributing further to climate change.

The following policies aim to reduce the risk of wildfires across Scotland and provide an effective response to wildfire incidents:

• Wildfire risk and land management – the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 will ensure that muirburn is undertaken in an environmentally sustainable manner and the legislation includes provision for muirburn licenses to be issued to help prevent and lower the risk of wildfires. Training will be a mandatory requirement of the muirburn licence. The Muirburn Code is currently being reviewed by a Muirburn Code Working Group representing the key interests in muirburn including SFRS. The Act’s muirburn provisions are expected to be brought in to effect in 2025. SFRS will work to further develop a partnership approach with the land management sector to respond safely and effectively to wildfire incidents. SFRS will support the ongoing promotion of training for anyone who uses fire as a land management tool.
• Wildfire risk and forests –Scotland’s national forests and land managed by Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is sub-divided into five regional management units, each having a local incident response plan, which include potential wildfires incidents. FLS has guidance in place for staff regarding how to manage wildfires and staff on fire duty during the season to improve response times and liaise effectively with SFRS. Incident response plans for each regional management units are produced in collaboration with SFRS and other agencies and are reviewed annually. As part of wider contingency planning over catastrophic loss of forest areas, the SFRS will seek to strengthen assessment of fire risk linking it to long term forest plans for individual forest areas. SFRS will also identify the most efficient and cost-effective use of aerial assets, both publicly and privately funded, to maximise the utility of these tools.
• Public information on wildfire risk - the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC) sets out the rights and responsibilities of people exercising outdoor access rights.
• This includes advice on preventing wildfires and the SOAC states “Wherever possible, use a stove rather than light an open fire. If you do wish to light an open fire, keep it small, under control and supervised – fires that get out of control can cause major damage, for which you might be liable. Never light an open fire during prolonged dry periods or in areas such as forests, woods, farmland, or on peaty ground or near to buildings or in cultural heritage sites where damage can be easily caused. Heed all advice at times of high risk. Remove all traces of an open fire before you leave.”
• Fire messaging for each season is agreed by the national Visitor Management Steering Group and the National Access Forum and in 2024 it emphasised “no fires at any time in forests, woods, farmland, peaty ground or near to buildings or cultural heritage sites” and has included reference to BBQs. Further guidance is currently in development on fires/BBQs and in the context of outdoor access rights and visitor management, it is for access managers, rangers, visitor managers and land managers. VisitScotland and Nature Scot, including working though Scotland’s National Visitor Management Steering Group, will continue to work in partnership with others to promote the SOAC and raise awareness of wildfire prevention.
• The SFRS will continue to provide good quality information to empower property owners to protect their properties from wildfires.
• Fire danger information and the Scottish Wildfire Forum – the SFRS will support the Scottish Wildfire Forum in its objectives to provide information and education on the wildfire risk in Scotland to all audiences. The Scottish Wildfire Forum in conjunction with the SFRS and other agencies release fire danger information and maps when conditions are “very high” or “extreme”.

Ready Scotland public information

Ready Scotland is a year-round Scottish Government public information campaign which aims to highlight a range of risks including severe weather, and provide relevant advice to the public. It promotes positive behaviours during severe weather and raises awareness of information, advice, and guidance about what to do in advance to prepare for, respond to, and recover from severe weather emergencies. It includes:

• Ready Scotland website – the ready.scot website provides advice for the public on how to prepare their home, family, and business for disruption caused by emergencies including extreme weather. When emergencies do occur, it provides information on how to respond, keep safe, and help others in the community. The Scottish Government will continue to provide advice, through ready.scot and social media channels, on steps that households and businesses can take to help prepare for extreme weather such as storms, heatwaves, or flood events.
• Ready Scotland marketing campaign – the Ready Scotland public information marketing campaign highlights the most severe Met Office weather warnings, using geographically targeted social media, local radio, and partnership activity to highlight the risks of specific extreme weather events and provide advice on sensible measures to prepare and respond.
• Ready Scotland Learn – the Scottish Government will continue to improve and develop community-facing learning modules on how Scotland plans and prepares for emergencies and how community groups can play a safe and effective part at Ready Scotland Learn.

Building community resilience to emergencies

Community resilience is built through community development, based on community priorities and working through local initiatives. This means providing individuals and groups of people with the knowledge and skills they need to effect change in their own communities, through a process of engagement, education, empowerment, enablement, and evaluation. This will be delivered through:

• Voluntary Sector Resilience Partnership – the Scottish Government will maintain and strengthen links between third sector, business, and statutory responder organisations, relating to third sector involvement in resilience arrangements through effective inclusion in Scotland’s resilience structures and processes, including hosting the Voluntary Sector Resilience Partnership;
• Volunteers and the third sector - the Scottish Government will promote the appropriate involvement of volunteers and the third sector, within government and beyond, to support emergency planning and response arrangements and to better harness the third sector’s capability and capacity to assist during any emergency events;
• Voluntary sector assets - the Scottish Government will support the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, together with third sector and statutory responders, through the Voluntary Sector Resilience Partnership, to further develop our understanding of voluntary and community assets at national level, with the aim of improving shared awareness of their potential use during emergencies.
• Managing emergencies, including severe heat - the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGORR) co-ordinates the Scottish Government's response to complex and severe civil contingencies emergencies, including severe heat. SGORR adapts and scales its activities as required to support the Scottish Government’s response to the specific incident at hand. The Scottish Government welcomes and supports the development and roll out of new warning systems, including the UK Met Office's heat warning system, which supports responders and the Scottish Government in understanding, preparing for and responding to risks associated with severe heat.

Case Study: Scotland’s unique approach to resilience

The development of resilience in Scotland is based on the principle of Integrated Emergency Management (IEM). The aim of IEM is to develop flexible and adaptable arrangements for dealing with emergencies, whether foreseen or unforeseen including those caused or exacerbated by the effects of climate change. It is based on a multi- agency approach and the effective co-ordination of those agencies. It involves Category 1 and Category 2 responders (as defined in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004) and the voluntary sector, commerce, and a wide range of communities. Resilience goes far beyond organisations and communities alone with individual responsibility playing a vital part in the establishment of a resilient nation. This will ensure that we make use of all skills and resources at our disposal and will play a central role in working towards the national outcome of having strong, resilient and supportive communities able to cope effectively with emergencies, whatever their cause.

Community resilience is not the responsibility of one organisation. Scottish Government guidance on Building Resilient Communities suggests the following roles:

• Scottish Government: setting strategic direction, determining national policy, developing national resources, and carrying out national-level analytical work.
• Regional Resilience Partnerships: bringing together all the relevant organisations (including voluntary sector) in an area to develop an effective approach to dealing with emergencies. They have robust plans in place to respond to all kinds of events. These plans are regularly tested in joint exercises and during real emergencies.
• Local authorities: leading on engagement with communities, promoting and supporting community emergency planning, promoting resilience education through schools, supporting local training, and exercising with community groups.
• All responders (including voluntary sector): contributing to public information campaigns, services aimed at household and individual resilience, initiatives such as first aid training and participating in education initiatives.

Objective: New and existing buildings (C4)

New buildings are designed for a future climate, and opportunities for adaptation in existing buildings are taken during maintenance or retrofit.

SG Directorate lead: LGH

Climate-resilient places need buildings that are adaptable to our changing climate. Buildings constructed today need to be designed for the future climate. Many of Scotland’s existing buildings and wider built environment (such as streets and other urban spaces) will need to be adapted to projected increases in heavy rainfall, sea level rise and higher temperatures.

New Buildings

The following actions aim to ensure new and converted buildings are designed to be adaptable to our future climate.

• Building regulations: overheating risk - Scottish building regulations now include measures to address overheating in new homes and some other new residential buildings. Such buildings must be designed and constructed so that the risk to the health of the occupants from overheating is reduced, with developers asked to consider two of the key elements of design which can contribute to or mitigate overheating risk – management of excessive solar gain through glazing and the provision of ventilation to assist in cooling (Standard 3.28 Overheating risk). The Scottish Government will review of this standard when a suitable sample size of new dwellings have been built to allow analysis to take place.
• Building regulations: flood risk– a working group is reviewing and updating the guidance to Standard 3.3 (Flooding and groundwater) within the Building Standards Technical Handbooks. A particular focus is on property flood resilience (PFR) for new buildings and new building work. Any updated guidance will be applicable to all future new buildings at flood risk.
• Buildings and wind driven rain – the Scottish Government is involved in UK work to update climate data which informs resources such as wind-driven rain maps and to understand how this may provide a more informed approach to future building specification.
• Climate scenarios in building standards – the Scottish Government will investigate the extent that British and European standards, which are applied to construction work, consider future climate scenarios in the setting of relevant provisions and how this can be made more commonplace.

Where buildings are built, and how the land around is used and managed, also determine a building’s vulnerability to climate change impacts. Scotland’s land use planning system aims to ensure our places are more resilient to climate change impacts, including flood and overheating risks. In preparing their Local Development Plans, planning authorities must take into account the National Planning Framework 4 which supports adaptation to the current and future impacts of climate change, setting out the framework for taking into account climate risks, guiding development away from vulnerable areas, and enabling places to adapt to those risks. NPF4 Policy 2 supports development proposals that are sited and designed to adapt to current and future risks from climate change (for further detail on land use policies, including adaptation to extreme temperatures, see Objective NC2).

Existing Buildings

When an existing building is being maintained, improved or changed there is an important opportunity to consider ways to adapt to climate change. But not everyone has the capacity or opportunity to adapt their homes.

• Consenting policy for adaptation retrofits – development proposals to retrofit measures to existing developments that reduce emissions or support adaptation to climate change will be supported, via the National Planning Framework 4 (Policy 2).
• Property flood resilience - the Scottish Government will continue to develop polices around property flood resilience (PFR) through the Property Flood Resilience Development Group.
• Living with Flooding action plan – to build household flood resilience, and as part of the Living with Flooding action plan, Scottish Government will continue to raise awareness of the benefits of property flood resilience and encourage property owners, the construction and insurance industries, and the public to implement property flood resilience measures. This is supported by the Scottish Flood Forum which offers advice and information to individuals to help them protect their homes from flooding or to recover from flooding.
• Affordable household insurance – Flood Re is a joint industry and UK Government initiative to help UK households that are at risk of flooding to access affordable insurance, this includes offering householders up to £10,000 to install property flood resilience measures through their “Build Back Better” scheme. The Scottish Government will continue to engage with Flood Re to ensure that flood insurance remains affordable for those at risk of flooding.
• Energy efficiency retrofits – Heat in Buildings is an ambitious retrofit programme to decarbonise heating and remove poor energy efficiency as a driver of fuel poverty. Over the course of this Parliamentary Session we are investing in both energy efficiency and clean heat, and to date have spent over £539 million. Retrofitting energy efficiency measures – such as loft and wall insulation – to our buildings will reduce health risks from cold weather and can help manage internal temperatures during hot weather. A number of our schemes, notably our local authority Led Area Based Schemes and Warmer Homes Scotland, operate in line with PAS 2035 standards, which require consideration of ventilation needs, including extractor systems, trickle vents in glazing and airflow between rooms. Together improved energy efficiency and ventilation can help reduce vulnerability to overheating. We will continue to explore how schemes can be adapted to better support both climate mitigation and adaptation.
• Heat in Buildings strategy – Scottish Government will update its Heat in Buildings Strategy. As part of this, we will consider climate adaptation issues such as: exploring how passive cooling measures, such as ventilation and shading, could be applied to buildings during the course of improving their fabric efficiency; the integration of climate adaptation measures for properties into public engagement on energy efficiency; and understanding the need for, and role of, clean heat systems that are capable of also providing cooling, such as reversible heat pumps.
• Green Public Sector Estate Decarbonisation Scheme – cooling measures are already part of the eligibility criteria in the decarbonisation funding schemes for public sector bodies. We are preparing new guidance which will require any applicants to the funds to provide an assessment of overheating risks in residential buildings which will include anyone who might be resident even temporarily. This would include care homes, residential schools, hospitals or any other relevant buildings. This assessment will be expected to be informed by the method set out in the section on overheating risks in the Building Standards Non domestic Technical Handbook.
• Heat in Buildings research – we will continue to work with the UK Government to look at cooling needs of our building stock, and this will inform future policy development in this area.

Traditional Buildings

Around 20% of Scotland’s homes can be dated to pre-1919 and are of traditional construction. Well-maintained and retrofitted traditional buildings are more resilient and emit less carbon helping deliver net zero targets and contributing to the resilience of the historic environment and supporting Scotland's adaptation journey.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) advocates building maintenance as the first line of defence in a changing climate; buildings that are wind and water-tight, with well-maintained roofs, rainwater goods, windows and ventilation systems are best equipped to respond to a shift to anticipated climatic changes. Traditional buildings have an inherent capacity to moderate extreme temperatures with passive qualities that were designed to maximise natural light and ventilation. Retrofit measures can be used to improve the energy efficiency of traditional buildings, thus lowering carbon emissions, and adapt them to the changing climate whilst creating healthy indoor environments. Traditional buildings play a part in supporting the innovative solutions and technologies that will be required to deliver adaptation. Key considerations here include:

• Building maintenance in a changing climate – in order to support building maintenance as the first line of defence in a changing climate, HES undertakes research on a range of topics. This includes the importance of good practice in repair and maintenance to ensure traditional buildings are able to adapt to a changing climate and the use of traditional materials as a tool for adapting the traditionally constructed built environment, e.g. use of lime coatings and renders. Other topics include appropriate energy efficiency and low emission heating retrofit to minimise maladaptation and loss of historic fabric through inappropriate application of measures designed for buildings of more recent construction; the measurable benefits of reusing, adapting and upgrading traditional buildings with appropriate materials and techniques to make them more energy efficient and ready for the changing climate (in preference to demolition and new construction); and change of behaviour and decay tipping points of traditional building materials due to the impact of climate change. HES research also includes risk and vulnerability assessment for HES Properties in Care; management of access to Heritage Assets due to combination of increase of tourism and the effect of climate change; and the impacts of climate change on earth and turf mortars, buildings and monuments including archaeological remains, and the opportunities these materials present.
• Support for owners of traditional buildings – to support owners of traditional buildings and other heritage assets, HES will disseminate advice and guidance including free, accessible advice delivered via the Historic Environment Scotland technical advice service. Additionally HES will disseminate a refreshed Historic Environment Scotland Guide to Climate Change Adaptation; refurbishment case studies covering retrofit and adaptation projects, to avoid maladaptation and encourage best practice; an updated Guide to Energy Retrofit to ensure the resilience of traditional buildings and minimising maladaptation; talks and learning events for the public, including homeowners; and tools to inform decision-making on building conservation, e.g. Building Stone Database for Scotland.

Case Study: Resilience of Traditional Buildings

Good building maintenance is the first line of defence in a changing climate. In Stirling, the Traditional Buildings Health Check (TBHC) provides high-quality maintenance and repair advice and financial support to owners of traditional buildings. Run by the Stirling City Heritage Trust (SCHT), the TBHC is a not-for-profit membership-based maintenance scheme. It aims to promote regular maintenance and good quality, appropriate repairs to traditional buildings which will help build and maintain their resilience to severe weather. The TBHC also aims to promote private investment in the traditional built heritage and generate good, green jobs.

The TBHC was originally run as a pilot project from 2013-2018. It was initiated by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) in partnership with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) Scotland. Over the course of the pilot £705,000 was invested in its delivery. In return £1.3 million was invested by members on repairs and £52,000 invested on skills training. Based on the positive results of the pilot, SCHT is continuing to deliver this service in Stirling as part of the core activities of the Trust, funded by HES.

Over the past decade 280 buildings have been inspected around Stirling, Bridge of Allan and Dunblane. 445 property owners have joined the scheme and been supported in the repair and maintenance of their traditional property. In 10 years, the scheme has granted funded 64 completed projects, awarding £340,340 in grant funding, towards total grant funded project costs of over £1 million. This is currently the only such service being delivered in Britain.

Objective: Culture and historic environment (C5)

Scotland's historic environment is preparing for a future climate, and the transformational power of culture, heritage and creativity supports Scotland's adaptation journey.

SG Directorate lead: DEAC

The historic environment is part of our everyday lives. It provides character to our landscapes, strengthens and enhances our local communities, and helps to forge a sense of place.

The historic environment is a physical thing; whether that is a building, monument, site, or landscape; above or underground, or underwater. It can be culturally significant, and integral to our understanding of the past and the people whose lives came before ours; or perform a more functional role through providing a home, workplace, public park, farmland, or hospital. The historic environment can create spaces for recreation, leisure, tourism, education, and places for nature to thrive. While the historic environment is a physical thing, it is shaped by things we cannot touch or see: by stories, traditions, and concepts that help to give the physical traces of the past their meaning, significance, and value.

At its heart, therefore, the historic environment is about people, and about our collective past, present, and future. It’s about our connections with each other and with our places and planet; about the legacies we inherit and those we leave behind.

In a wider sense, it is through culture that we consciously or unconsciously express the world as we see it whether through mediums such as art, music and poetry or through our language including the Gaelic and Scots languages which play an integral part of Scotland's heritage and national identity. Shared cultural experiences foster inclusivity, creativity, and understanding, which can help individuals and communities to grow and to imagine alternative futures. Culture can, therefore, play a key role in helping the public visualise the potential impacts of climate change, challenge our beliefs, and shift ways of seeing and thinking about the world and the way we live.

Scotland’s rich culture sector – from artists, creative practitioners, producers, and businesses as well as local and national cultural organisations – can speak to and engage a wide range of people. Through cultural assets, programming, and content and by changing their own behaviours and practices, the culture sector can influence public opinion and enable behavioural change across society.

This objective aims to address the threats from climate change to Scotland's historic environment, and realise the power of culture and creativity to support the transformations and transitions in society needed to live well in a different climate.

Historic Environment

Our historic environment is on the front line of climate change, and Scotland is a global leader in heritage-related responses. Our Past, Our Future is a 5-year collaborative strategy for Scotland’s historic environment that commits to making the historic environment more climate resilient. Resilience covers more than just the protection we provide to our physical heritage. It means having the right skills and materials to work with, and it means having the right knowledge to realise benefits sustainably and so that people can make informed decisions about the future of the assets they care for. Key policies include:

• Adaptation support in Our Past, Our Future – Our Past, Our Future (OPOF, 2023-28) outcome 2 that ‘The historic environment is more climate resilient’ means that we have the right skills, materials, expertise, and data available. This outcome is supported by others on the need for skills, diversity, inclusivity, and communities to have a say in what happens to our historic environment, as well as the sector’s contribution to Scotland’s economy, operating within environmental limits, and enabling current and future generations to live well. Relevant actions for the heritage sector include: ensuring heritage grant programmes can fund adaptation measures; promoting a fabric-first approach to energy-efficiency measures; and providing advice, support, and guidance to people who are looking to reduce the emissions of historic buildings, or who are looking to prepare and respond to the changing climate.
• Building heritage sector skills to support adaptation – the revised Skills Investment Plan for Scotland’s historic environment published April 2024 identifies the opportunities and actions needed to create a sustainable skills system, and to improve the delivery and accessibility of heritage skills training. The Plan identifies “Building skills to support net zero mitigation, adaptation and sustainability” as Action 1 under its Priority Theme 3: Fostering innovation. The historic environment sector will work with key industry stakeholders and across Scottish Government Directorates who have an interest in ensuring the sector has the required skills to maintain traditional buildings, support tourism and the economy, and deliver net zero targets through retrofitting of existing traditional buildings.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is the lead public body set up to investigate, care for and promote Scotland’s historic environment. Ensuring Scotland's historic environment is prepared for a future climate is a priority for HES and the wider historic environment sector. Progress here will be delivered through:

• Historic Environment Scotland support for adaptation – to work towards making the organisation and wider sector more prepared for and resilient to changes in our climate, HES will continue to implement its current Climate Action Plan and other relevant work to: increase resilience by mainstreaming climate change risk assessment into policy and operations; deliver innovative and exemplary practice in climate change adaptation and be internationally recognised as doing so; and support emissions reduction, minimise environmental impact, and promote sustainability via adaptation solutions. HES will continue to: promote maintenance and repair as the first line of defence in combating the impacts of climate change and underpinning sustainable asset management; drive change in the wider historic environment by building climate change actions into our grant schemes; and provide leadership on how to manage the loss of heritage assets in a way that ensures most benefit whilst accepting the inevitable consequences of climate change impacts. The HES Climate Action Plan will be updated in 2025.
• Historic Environment Scotland grants – HES Grants Framework’s Grant Priority 4 (of 6) is ‘Use the historic environment as a catalyst for climate action’. This priority sets out how funded projects can support climate resilience by repairing the effects of climate change on the historic environment, protecting it for the future, and supporting low-carbon interventions to make the historic environment operate more effectively. HES grants provide financial support for the following: repair works for owners of historic buildings or sites to reinstate damage caused by climate change, for example, through stonework erosion, flood damage or the impact of sustained changes in weather patterns; upgrading historic fabric to cope with climate change, for example, through increasing the size of rainwater goods, choosing more weather-resistant reed for thatching, heavier gauge lead sheeting; and increasing the energy efficiency of historic buildings through the reinstatement or retrofitting of sympathetic energy efficiency measures.

Climate resilience across Scotland’s historic environment is supported by Historic Environment Scotland and the whole heritage sector by ensuring that the sector’s knowledge, expertise and experience will support the transformational change that will be necessary if the historic environment sector – and our society as a whole – is to adapt to and mitigate the causes of climate change. Action here includes:

• Historic Environment Policy for Scotland – HES will continue promoting the Historic Environment Policy for Scotland (HEPS) as a policy statement for decision making for the whole of the historic environment for use at all levels from national to local. All of the policies and principles in HEPS are likely to be relevant to climate change adaptation measures depending on context, with HEP2 and HEP5 highlighting the importance of sustainable decision making. Pointing The Way to the Future is a position statement sitting alongside the HEPS and the HES Regulatory Framework, which explains how HES will undertake its regulatory functions in a way that responds to the climate crisis, including adaptation.
• Archaeological heritage on the coast – Historic Environment Scotland will continue to work with SCAPE (Scotland’s Coastal Archaeology and the Problem of Erosion) on the completion of coastal zone assessment surveys, working with coastal communities around Scotland to identify and record threatened archaeological heritage and to build local networks with an active interest in their cultural heritage
• Climate Vulnerability Index – Historic Environment Scotland and the wider sector will roll out the Climate Vulnerability Index to all Scottish World Heritage Sites

Culture

To help build climate resilience of the culture sector and harness the transformational power of culture and creativity to support Scotland's climate adaptation journey, the Scottish Government will continue to work towards our ongoing commitment in the Culture Strategy Action Plan to advocate for, and make best use of, opportunities to utilise culture’s potential to support delivery on climate change priorities, including adaptation. This will be achieved through:

• Protecting cultural assets and effecting positive changes – through the 2023 Culture Strategy Action Plan, the Scottish Government will continue to support and promote the activity of our funded bodies and the wider culture sector to understand the impact of climate change, protect vulnerable collections and archives, and effect positive change in communities across Scotland.
• Working with the Scottish National Culture for Climate group - the Scottish Government will continue to engage with, learn from, and promote the work of the Scottish National Culture for Climate group, an informal collaborative partnership of national cultural institutions, funders and organisations who, through their individual and collective assets, activities and networks, play a key role in influencing society about climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
• Creative Scotland – Creative Scotland recognises the powerful role of culture and creativity as agents for change and for influencing society. Creative Scotland will continue to use our work to influence and increase public engagement with climate change. It will encourage and empower the arts, screen, and creative industries in Scotland to become a positive force in the fair and equitable transformation of Scottish Society toward a zero carbon, climate ready nation by: Including Environmental Sustainability Funding Criteria within our funding framework; continuing to develop adaptation capabilities using the Adaptation Capability Framework; collecting environmental sustainability data from our Regularly Funded/Multi Year Organisations and including the aggregated data within our Public Bodies Climate Change Duties Report; and reporting annually on the progress of our Climate Emergency and Sustainability Plan.
• National Collections – to build on work towards making our collections and archives more prepared for and resilient to changes in our climate as well as using our assets and programming to influence society on adaptation, our National Collections will continue to implement actions and approaches set out in their respective climate plans:
  • The National Library of Scotland Climate Action Plan has ‘Adaptation’ as one of its key themes. It includes: a review of Business Continuity Plans; staff awareness training; the development of a Climate Change Risk Assessment for its buildings, and using its collections; and, digital resources and programming to help educate individuals and build resilience in communities facing the climate crisis.
  • The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) Environmental Response Plan includes inspiring and engaging audiences on climate change and incorporating adaptation practices into climate literacy training for staff. It also includes embedding environmental and climate resilience priorities, as well as nature-based adaptation solutions where possible, into building improvements and new developments across NGS sites.
  • The National Museums Scotland (NMS) Strategy for Sustainability includes extensive staff training, delivering a public offer that supports greater engagement and understanding on climate challenges and utilising of Climate Change Impact Assessments to ensure climate and nature-based adaptation is considered from the early stages of NMS project design.
• Museums Galleries Scotland – Museums Galleries Scotland will build resilience across the sector through development of a climate network to facilitate sharing of best practice, resources and expertise.

Case Study: Power of culture in inspiring climate action

Reaching net zero and a world adapted to the changed climate requires transformational changes to society and lifestyles that are, for many, hard to imagine and so difficult to enact. Culture has the power to change the stories by which we live, to inspire, to inform, to engage. Artists, historians, librarians, and curators think differently. They bring different imaginations, skills and experience that can help other professionals think outside the usual boxes. This powerful short film produced by the Scottish National Culture for Climate group (SNaCC) for COP26 highlights the power of culture to change the narrative and urges climate change professionals to harness the power of culture in achieving their aims.

Objective: Coastal communities (C6)

Coastal communities are preparing for and adapting to coastal erosion and sea level rise.

SG Directorate lead: ENFOR

Most of Scotland’s cities and many of our communities and businesses are located at the coast or on estuaries or rivers with a tidal influence. Important road and rail transport links and water treatment and drainage infrastructure is also located along the coast as well as valued recreational spaces including designated bathing waters and links golf courses. Threats to our coastline have the potential to affect all aspects of society, economy and nature and, like other climate impacts, can cascade across sectors.

Coastal storm impacts, including coastal erosion and flooding, are recognised as some of Scotland’s most severe climate risks (CCC, 2022). Almost half of Scotland’s soft (or erodible) shores are currently eroding; and under all emissions scenarios the extent and rate of erosion is expected to increase. Data from Dynamic Coast estimates that up to £1.2 billion of road, rail and residential property is expected to be affected by coastal erosion by 2050 (Dynamic Coast, 2021). Sea level rise will continue to 2300, even under a low emissions future. Relative sea level rise is expected to reach 1 metre by 2100 though global uncertainty over icesheet and glacial instability means that rises of 2 million by 2100 cannot be excluded (IPCC, 2019). Coastal erosion and flood risks are strongly influenced by the local setting, which is why developing local plans which incorporate community aspects is so important. Coastal flood risk in future is also set to increase at a greater rate than historically and coastal erosion will further accelerate the impact and frequency of coastal flooding. erosion will further accelerate the rate at which the frequency and impact of coastal flooding.

Higher sea levels will make it more difficult for water to drain to the sea, probably increasing future flooding from rivers and rainfall at high tides and during storms. For some low-lying areas fair-weather flooding is expected to become more common, where high tides inundate areas even without the influence of storms.

Scottish Government supports the view of the Climate Change Committee that we cannot indefinitely rely on building concrete defences to ‘hold the line’, but that we must adapt to accommodate future sea level rise is essential and ultimately more sustainable in the longer term. Dynamic adaptive pathways address uncertainty and form the basis of local authority Coastal Change Adaptation Plans.

The consultation analysis found that respondents were supportive of further action on the climate-related impacts at our coast. They also highlighted the need for further data on approaches to address rising sea levels and coastal erosion and coastal management, including through reinforcing natural coastal barriers such as dunes and expressed concern for the impacts of coastal change particularly on island communities. Key action is grouped under the following headings:

Planning

• National Planning Framework 4 – See section in Objective NC3.
• Flood Resilience Strategy – the Scottish Government will publish Scotland’s first Flood Resilience Strategy in Autumn 2024, which will set out what we need to do to improve our long-term flood resilience from all sources, including coastal.
• Coastal Change Adaptation Plans – the Scottish Government, SEPA and NatureScot are working with local authorities to plan for and act on coastal erosion and coastal flooding. In February 2023, the Scottish Government published new Coastal Change Adaptation Planning Guidance (CCAP) to assist local authorities in developing coastal change adaptation plans. This guidance broadly follows the approach set out in the DEFRA 2006 SMP guidance and refresh, but goes further promoting a dynamic adaptive pathways approach. This approach identifies community interests and the various options to achieve these in response to how quickly the landscape is changing. It also allows local authorities to widen the scope of strategic planning beyond the ‘shoreline’ to include the coastal hinterland and allow planning space for relocation adaptation. The CCAP must be integrated with wider local authority adaptation planning.
• C oastal Change Adaptation Fund – in the 2020-21 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government committed £11.7 million of funding to local authorities to develop Coastal Change Adaptation Plans and to undertake resilience and adaptation actions:
  • In 2024-25 £1.65 million has been allocated to 19 coastal local authorities to advance Coastal Change Adaptation work and £1.05 million has been shared in support of local case-studies to help advance our understanding of coastal change adaptation.
  • The remainder of the funding will be issued before the end of this parliament (2026) and Scottish Government and COSLA will explore options for future funding mechanisms and support.

Case Study: Moray Council Coastal Change Adaptation Planning

Moray Council have worked in collaboration with JBA Consulting to develop a series of Coastal Change Adaptation Plans (CCAP) for the Moray local authority area in the North of Scotland. Plans are being developed at two levels: An overarching Regional Plan, covering the entire Moray Council coastline, and 11 Local Plans for community areas (CAs) where adaptation actions are deemed a higher priority. These plans are “living documents” whereby changes in knowledge will trigger reviews and the implementation of defined actions. For the draft CCAP for the Hopeman to Covesea Coast CA in Moray, the coast of the CA was classified into Coastal Management Units (CMUs) defined by 1) classification of coastal landform type, and 2) risk associated with coastal flooding and erosion. A total of three CMUs were identified, and associated Adaptation Pathways were developed for each.

Four more of the top ten most at risk local authorities are planning on beginning CCAPs in 2024-25 and a number of case studies have been funded by the Coastal Change Adaptation Fund including in Orkney Island Council (Dynamic Coast).

Mapping

• Coastal Erosion Maps – the Dynamic Coast project provides the evidence of past change and anticipated coastal erosion change if no action is taken , and how this erosion will change with various climate change scenarios. We recognise the importance of updating these maps (and thus, the role of national coastal monitoring) and incorporating the latest changes within risk assessments. Maps of anticipated coastal erosion, and other resources to support coastal change adaptation, are available at DynamicCoast.com.
• Coastal Flood Maps - SEPA has a role in providing the evidence for coastal flood risk and how this will increase with climate change. By 2029 SEPA will review and where appropriate update coastal flood maps as appropriate to include the latest information including climate change projections. National coastal monitoring has a key role to play in the success of the updates. The coastal flood maps are being updated in phases, with review and where appropriate updates for all regions by 2029. SEPA recognises the same processes that cause coastal flooding cause coastal change and that the two are closely linked and should not be considered in isolation from each other. SEPA sits on the Dynamic Coast steering group for Coastal Change Adaptation Plans.
• Flooding and Coastal Erosion Maps – SEPA will review the Natural Flood Management and Natural Susceptibility to Coastal Erosion Maps available on its website to better understand what information may be required to improve implementation of nature-based solutions.

Monitoring

• To support community flood resilience (i.e. ability to respond and recover from flooding), the Scottish Government will:
  • Continue to support SEPA to invest in flood forecasting and warning services including for coastal flooding (see Objective C3);
  • Explore how coastal storm damage could be better forecast and warned for.
• Coastal Monitoring – the Scottish Government will identify the most efficient and effective way to establish a national coastal monitoring programme to ensure that up to date information on coastal change is collected, analysed and made available. This will be led by Chief Scientific advisers within the Scottish Government Coastal monitoring is essential to develop and trigger adaptation actions within CCAPs. It is also essential for the production of accurate Flood Maps and flood/storm warning as well as wider benefits such as information on natural habitats and Blue Carbon.
• Storm Monitoring – The Scottish Government will consider the case for establishing a storm impact monitoring programme at the coast allowing the impacts to be quantified to allow for better information to plan for storm events.

Nature-based Solutions

• SBS DP Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Delivery Plan (SBS DP) – As explored in Objective NC1, the Scottish Government supports the use of Nature-Based solutions to increase resilience to climate change. The SBS DP also lists actions aimed at increasing resilience in coastal and marine systems by reducing key pressures and safeguarding space for coastal habitat change:
  • By 2026 NatureScot will complete an initial prioritisation exercise identifying accommodation space to be protected for coastal habitat change. This will promote recovery and adaptation, and identify potential future mechanism(s) to deliver recovery and adaptation, including agricultural subsidies.
  • NatureScot, supported by the Scottish Government, will identify and address gaps in current evidence on coastal habitats, through research and monitoring as an enabling action for all coastal biodiversity actions (2024-28) and fund research commencing in 2024 into better quantifying the adaptation benefits of coastal landforms and habitats to maximise biodiversity benefits. Collaboration between NatureScot and SEPA (via above Coastal Monitoring Group) is recommended to realise associated flood resilience and adaptation opportunities.