The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Presentation to:Northern Periphery ProgrammeScottish Project Partner Event16th March 2009, Inverness

David MuirLead PartnerComhairle nan Eilean Siar

Presentation by:John McClatcheyPartnerUHI Millennium Institute Environmental Research Institute

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Outline

• Climate Change Issues in Programme Area

• Impacts of Extreme Weather Events

• CoastAdapt Project Overview

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Climate Change Issues in Programme Area

• Storms & storm-surge flooding

• Sea-level rise

• Shoreline erosion & loss of land

• Milder winters, increased precipitation

• Increased risk of avalanches – snow, sludge

• Eco-system impacts

• Community impacts

• Socio-economic impacts

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Impacts of Extreme Weather EventsExamples include:

• January 2005 storm, Outer Hebrides

• 160 km/hr winds January 2006, Melkøya, Hammerfest

• Flooding & erosion, December 2006, Selfoss, Iceland

• Erosion & loss of land, December 2008, County Kerry, Ireland

1800hrs 11th Jan 2005

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

How to deal with the risks presented by climate change

Mitigation: Human intervention to actively reduce the production of greenhouse gas emissions (reducing energy consumption in transport, construction, at home, at work, etc.) or to remove the gases from the atmosphere (sequestration).

Adaptation: Adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic changes or their impacts, so as to reduce harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Adapt to the changing conditions

Improving the ability to cope with or respond to the impacts of climate change. Undertake by : gathering knowledge and information about climate change; training people, researching; making plans; creating networks and discussion fora.

Decisions or choices that generate change. Implementation occurs through: laws or policies; organisational change; individual action.

Building adaptive capacity:

Implementing adaptation:

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

The CoastAdapt Project

Project Objective

“CoastAdapt is a transnational project that will develop and implement a range of adaptation strategies and tools to enable people living in coastal communities to take action and adopt strategies that deal with sea-level rise and reduce the negative impacts and risks associated with climate change as well as take advantage of the potential benefits.”

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

The CoastAdapt Project

• Partnership approach

• Assessment of risk, vulnerability and community adaptive capacity

• Building adaptive capacity

• Implementation of adaptation strategies

• Provision of a one-stop information resource

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

The CoastAdapt ProjectPartnership approach

• Project partners - 10 partners Comhairle nan Eilean Siar – Lead PartnerAberdeen Institute for Coastal Science & ManagementUHI – Environmental Research InstituteScottish Natural HeritageUniversity of Ulster – Centre for Coastal & Marine ResearchKerry County Council, IrelandUniversity College Cork – Coastal & Marine Resources

Centre Hammerfest Kommune, Finnmark, NorwayNorthern Research Institute, Alta, NorwayUniversity of Iceland – Institute for Sustainability Studies

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

The CoastAdapt Project

Partnership approach

• Range of Associate Partners in each country

• Pilot study areas – Western Isles, ScotlandTralee Bay, County Kerry, IrelandHammerfest, West Finnmark, NorwayMunicipalities of Arborg and Vik i

Myrdal, Southern Iceland

• Local CoastAdapt groups – climate champions

• Network of ‘Climate Witnesses’

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Assessment of risk, vulnerability and community adaptive capacity

• Provision of literature & research material for technical experts, communities and local groups as basis for development of adaptation tools and strategies.

• Assessment of existing & expected climate change impacts for coastal environments. Define regional differences in impacts and downscale to pilot sites.

• Generate climate change impact maps for pilot sites which can be used to illustrate coastal change scenarios.

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Assessment of risk, vulnerability and community adaptive capacity continued

• Materials to be used in initial assessment of community awareness & preparedness, coupled to defining local adaptive response and capacity building through project workshops.

• Development of a vulnerability framework for use in assessment of adaptive capacity in a ‘bottom-up’ approach.

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Building adaptive capacity

• Series of workshops to be held in the pilot study sites

• Workshop 1 will provide the background to climate change, impacts for coastal communities, and introduction to adaptation. Researchers will learn from community knowledge and experience, and record perceptions of climate related change, risk and barriers to adaptation.

• Workshop 2 will focus on development of adaptive strategies and policies in local context. Social and physical impacts of adaptation will be considered. Key issues will be how to lower climate change risk and to raise current adaptive capacity.

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Building adaptive capacity continued

• Workshop 3 will devise implementation plans based on local strategy. This will take account of differing forms of education and dissemination as well as issues of scale , responsibilities and decision-making.

• Community consultations and meetings with local decision-makers in local government.

• Specialised subject specific seminars.

• Networking between communities in pilot study sites.

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Project deliverables in terms of products and services

• Measuring adaptive capacity tool

• Integrated vulnerability framework

• Visualisations and scenarios

• Climate Change Adaptation Handbookfor the use of North Atlantic Coastal Communities

• One-stop web-based information resource

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Implementation of adaptation strategies

• Establish network of stakeholders and decision-makers from all pilot study sites

• Review legislation and local policies and assess amendments required to address adaptation and streamline policies to avoid mal-adaptation

• Implement education, awareness-raising and communication aimed at different target audiences to encourage adoption and implementation of adaptation strategies.

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Implementation of adaptation strategies continued

• Provide information, guidance advice and support to local authorities to assist them in developing their policies to ensure adaptation strategies are acted on by the authorities.

• Develop guidebook for local authorities, businesses and individuals to help them implement appropriate adaptation strategies.

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Provision of a one-stop information resource

• Collection and collation of information on climate change

• Examples of good practice in adaptation

• Compilation of experiences from communities in pilot study sites

• Creation of a web-based resource

The Sea as our Neighbour: Sustainable Adaptation to Climate Change for Coastal

Communities and Habitats on Europe’s Northern Periphery

CoastAdapt

Thank you for listening!