Climate change - Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029: joint equalities impact assessment and Fairer Scotland Duty assessment

Assessment by protected characteristics

This section will look at assessing the impacts of the Adaptation Plan on groups with protected characteristics and/or socio-economic disadvantages and identifying opportunities to promote equality and reduce disadvantage.

On the basis of the preceding data collection, the following protected characteristics have been scoped out of this EqIA as they are not considered to be exclusively affected by the Plan and/or are taken into consideration in the context of the other protected characteristic categories:

• Gender reassignment
• Sexual orientation
• Religion or belief
• Marriage and Civil Partnership

The following protected characteristics remain for assessment:

• Age
• Disability
• Pregnancy and Maternity
• Race
• Sex
• Socio-economic status
• Cross-cutting impacts

Age

Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimization

No impact - there is no evidence to suggest that, overall, the Plan would have an adverse impact because of a person’s age in this respect.

Advancing equality of opportunity

Positive impacts:

• The Plan makes provision for communities and individuals to be supported in taking locally led adaptation action. With strategic management, these provisions could allow for individuals and groups of different age groups to have opportunity to collaborate with each other to ensure a greater reflection of their specific needs and views in the integration process of climate resilience into wider community priorities.
• The Plan makes provision to increase the resilience of supply chains. The very young will benefit from secured availability of specific foods and products in the event of extreme weather (i.e. infant formula, nappies).
• The Plan makes provision for climate change adaptation for the transport system helping to maintain the reliability and resilience of public transport. This in turn will benefit children and young people especially where access to employment, education and training is maintained. This will also benefit older people with mobility issues who may have increased difficulty in travelling to different locations to secure food in the event of supply chain disruptions.

Negative or neutral impacts:

• While the Plan makes provision for increased awareness of property flood resilience measures and increased advice and support in relation to protection and recovery of extreme weather events, older people may have different needs and experience unique barriers in this respect. Further consideration should be given to older people’s need for extra support to access supplies of food, warmth and medicine, and to rebuild damaged homes and possessions in order to ensure equality of opportunity at the point of delivery.

Promoting good relations among and between different age groups

Positive impacts:

• It is anticipated that the delivery of the Plan could have a positive impact on promoting good relations among different age groups, due to increased awareness and engagement of communities and individuals in ensuring the protection of those with social vulnerabilities to multiple risks.

Disability

Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation

No impact - there is no evidence to suggest that the Plan would have an adverse impact on persons with disability in this respect.

Advancing equality of opportunity

Positive impacts:

• The Plan makes provision for the increased awareness and development of the Ready Scotland platform as an accessible resource providing information and advice on emergency preparedness and response. This provision will in turn will reduce disadvantage by enabling people with disabilities to prepare and respond to extreme weather events.
• The Plan makes provision to increase the resilience of supply chains. This in turn will benefit people with a mobility disability who may have increased difficulty in travelling to different locations to obtain medicine or buy food in the event of supply chain disruption as well as those who may require specific medicine or nutritional intake of certain foods due to their disability.
• The Plan makes provision for climate change adaptation measures for the transport system helping to maintain the reliability and resilience of bus system. This will give continued independence to disabled users in the event of increased intense weather, allowing them to be outside the home participating in social activities including access to employment, ability to travel to see family and friends, ability to travel to medical appointments, and access to shops and public services.
• The Plan makes provision for communities and individuals to be supported in taking locally led adaptation action. With strategic management, these provisions could allow for people with disabilities and disability groups to have opportunity to collaborate with other community groups in ensuring a greater reflection of their needs and views in the integration process of climate resilience into wider community priorities.
• The Plan makes provision for Public Health Scotland to work with the Scottish Government and COSLA in supporting the social care sector to respond to the climate emergency. The Care Inspectorate (the scrutiny body regulation all social care services in Scotland) will share guidance on resilience to more extreme weather with providers through their information channels.

Negative or neutral impacts:

• Although there is provision in the Plan for new and existing buildings to be designed or retrofitted with adaptation measures, there is an absence of specific strategies to ensure the accessibility of climate adapted buildings. As Scotland’s disabled population already face considerable housing challenges, it is important to consider that new or retrofitted adaptation properties do not reduce or remove the accessibility of homes. It is anticipated that planning regulation and building standard will ensure legal requirements are met in this regard.

Promoting good relations among and between disabled and non-disabled people

Positive impacts:

• It is anticipated that the delivery of the Plan could have a positive impact on promoting good relations among and between disabled and non-disabled people, due to increased visibility and engagement of communities and individuals in ensuring the protection of those with social vulnerabilities to multiple risks.

Pregnancy or Maternity

Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation

No impact: there is no known or anticipated reason why the Plan would have any impacts on unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation in relation to pregnancy and maternity. It should be noted that there is limited evidence on pregnant people in regards to adaptation and official data on pregnancy and maternity is not recorded in the Census.

Advancing equality of opportunity

Positive impacts:

• The Plan makes provisions for increased nature-based solutions including greenspace access which will likely have a positive impact on people who are pregnant or postpartum in accessing the health benefits of nature.
• The Plan makes provisions for health boards across Scotland to prepare and implement climate change adaptation plans which will in turn ensure continued access of service for people who are pregnant or postpartum in the event of extreme weather events.
• The Plan makes provision to increase the resilience of supply chains. This in turn will benefit pregnant or postpartum people to secure food which meets their nutritional requirements.

Promoting good pregnancy and maternity relations

Positive impacts:

• It is anticipated that the delivery of the Plan could have a positive impact on promoting good relations with regards to pregnancy or maternity. This is due to increased visibility and engagement of pregnancy and postpartum groups when bringing together communities and different groups to integrate climate resilience into wider community priorities. The positive impact of this will require strategic management to ensure the voices of the entire community are heard.

Race

Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation

No impact: there is no known or anticipated reason why the Plan would have any impacts on unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation in relation to race. It should be noted that there is limited evidence on BME people in regards to adaptation measures.

Advancing equality of opportunity

Positive impacts:

• The Plan makes provision for affordable flood insurance to flood-prone households and businesses and increased awareness of property flood resilience measures will help to remove the some of the flood disadvantage currently experienced by BME households.
• The Plan makes provision for communities and individuals to be supported in taking locally led adaptation action. With strategic management, these provisions could allow for BME individuals and groups to have opportunity to collaborate with other community groups in ensuring a greater reflection of their needs and views in the integration process of climate resilience into wider community priorities.

Negative or neutral impacts:

• There is an absence of provisions in the Plan setting out recommendations for safeguarding the private rent sector in Scotland against the impacts of climate change which could help reduce BME flood disadvantage.
• There is an absence of provisions in the Plan setting out specific strategies to facilitate the participation of BME individuals in the climate smart workforce. As there is a significant disparity in the number of BME individuals working within the environmental sector, this presents an opportunity to engage and research on the barriers to representation in this sector. Increased diversity in a climate-smart workforce will help contribute to the Plan’s innovation provision.

Promoting good race relations

Positive impacts:

• It is anticipated that the delivery of the Plan could have a positive impact on promoting good relations with regards to race. This is due to increased visibility and engagement of ethnic minorities when bringing together communities and different groups of individuals together through place-based adaptation collaboration to ensure communities and individuals are supported to take locally-led adaptation action that meets their needs. The positive impact of this will require strategic management to ensure the voices of the entire community are heard.

Sex

Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation

Positive impacts:

• The international outcome in the proposal notes that it will seek to amplify the voices of those communities most vulnerable to climate change specifically referring to women and girls. This along with the policy provisions contained within the outcome will help to ensure that women in communities in the Global South receive access to funding and resources that they have been historically barred from.

Advancing equality of opportunity

Positive impacts:

• There are many provisions within the Plan committing to climate justice interventions for women through both partner funding, international advocacy, and research on Loss and Damage. For example, the Plan reaffirms an intention to become a commitment maker under the Feminist Action for Climate Justice theme through the UN Women’s Generation Equality Campaign.
• The public service outcome includes provision through the transport objective improve the resilience of our public transport system. As more frequent users of the public transport system, this increased resilience will potentially lead women to have improved transport access.

Negative or neutral impacts:

• While there are provisions within the Plan to support developing skills in sustainable and regenerative agriculture, there is an absence of explicit provisions targeted at addressing the barriers faced by women in advancing their roles on the farm through these services. With strategic adjustment to ensure access to women with limited time or specific policies aimed at women, these opportunities could be equally accessible to both men and women. During implementation, the Plan could look to support development of strategic climate adaptation policy recommendations for women in farming in Scotland if evidence supports this is required to enhance equality interests.
• There is an absence of provisions (in the form of policy or research intentions) within the Plan for women living in Scotland. The lack of evidence to suggest the impacts of climate change adaptation measures specifically looking at women in Scotland in particular could indicate further research may be required in this area to assess their disadvantage and whether further mitigation may be required.

Promoting good relations between men and women

Positive impacts:

• It is anticipated that the delivery of the Plan could have a positive impact on promoting good relations with regards to sex. This is due to increased visibility and engagement of both genders when bringing together communities and different groups of individuals together through place-based adaptation collaboration to ensure communities and individuals are supported to take locally-led adaptation action that meets their needs including women’s needs. The positive impact of this will require strategic management to ensure the voices of the entire community are heard.