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

Decision making and monitoring

Identifying and establishing any required mitigating action

Have positive or negative impacts been identified for any of the equality groups?

A range of potential positive impacts have been identified following the EqIA and FSDA process including the results of the draft the Adaptation Plan consultation. The outcomes in the Plan are intended to ensure everyone in Scotland is protected against the impacts of climate change without discrimination. However, certain outcomes are more likely to impact people than others due largely to geographic vulnerability.

The community outcome in the plan in particular outlines putting people at the heart of place-based adaptation. Building the capacity of communities to take meaningful actions will help tackle other local priorities that are specific to their geographic location. With strategic management, this will also allow for people with protected characteristics to take greater part in designing adaptation plans for their community by removing hierarchical layers of decision-making that would have historically prevented their voices from being heard. The realisation of these positive impacts will depend on strategic management of policy implementation.

With proper delivery of the Plan’s proposed outcomes, the anticipated impact on each of these outcomes is expected to be largely positive in relation to the protected characteristics where relevant evidence was available. Where limited data was available for some of the protected characteristics, options for future research are continuing to be explored and will be integrated into the Adaptation Plan’s monitoring and evaluating framework where possible.

There may potentially be negative or neutral impacts on relations among and between certain socio-economic groups. The benefits of the plan may be more accessible to people with a higher disposable income leaving people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage with fewer opportunities to access the cross-cutting benefits of the intended outcomes. While there will be no unlawful discrimination or promotion of unequal opportunity in this regard, it is important that future opportunities to ensure equitable access of all socio-economic groups are further explored where available.

Some protected groups may also feel the plan has a negative or neutral impact through the absence of provisions in certain policy areas:

• Adaptation measures in the private or social rented sector
• Adaptation support for women in farming in Scotland
• Diversity in a climate-smart workforce
• Accessibility in climate resilient property designs
• Targeted flooding guidance for older generations

These potential impacts have been taken under advisement by the Scottish Government and we will continue to work to fill these gaps in our adaptation response.

Is the policy directly or indirectly discriminatory under the Equality Act 2020?

There is no evidence within this EqIA that the Plan is directly or indirectly discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010.

How has the EqIA and FSDA helped shaped the policy making process?

The equality analysis has helped to highlight areas where we do not have enough evidence on people with protected characteristics to make an informed decision on the effect of the policy on said group. The equality impact assessment analysis has also highlighted specific policy areas where further development and strategic management may be required to contribute to wider effort to ensure that current disadvantages are minimised.

The EqIA has also highlighted the importance of strategic management in place-based adaptation on a community level to ensure protected groups are engaged and involved in planning and implementation.

There have been no implications for costs or resources arising from the EqIA analysis.

Monitoring and Review

The consideration of equality impacts is an ongoing process that will require overseeing the implementation of many delivery arms to identify inequalities that still exist. The delivery of the Plan will include monitoring and evaluation. Planned monitoring and evaluation of the Just Transition Plans will also be important in improving our understanding of equalities. The Just Transition Plans include an outcome related to adaptation and nature/biodiversity. Evidence gathered to support the monitoring and evaluation of the Plans will aim to develop our understanding of whether different equalities groups are experiencing the benefits of this outcome equally. In addition, further data development to support monitoring and evaluation of both the Adaptation Plan and the Just Transition Plan’s is taking place through a Scottish Climate Survey. This survey will provide data in the first half of 2025 around a range of objective areas in the Adaptation Plan and the Just Transition Plans.

The Climate Change Act also requires the Climate Change Committee to prepare two reports within the lifetime of the Plan setting out its independent assessment of the progress made towards its objectives, proposals and policies. The first independent assessment of the previous programme included accompanying advice on ensuring adaptation programme was done in line with a just transition^[7] and the CCC will continue to scrutinise the Plan’s progress on ensuring fairness in its adaptation policies.

Specific policies, plans and strategies proposed under the Plan should be screened for EqIAs, conducting them in full where assessed to be integral to ensure human rights and equality impacts (both direct and indirect) have been fully considered.