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Graphic depicting Scotland's Climate Week, with Scottish Government logo, #ScotClimateWeek, and an illustration of a globe with plants and butterflies around it

Scotland’s Climate Week kicks off today, Monday 23rd September. This annual event is a celebration of the positive action people are taking across Scotland to lower our climate emissions, and increase our resilience to climate impacts.

Stories for Change

This year’s theme is “Stories for Change” which aims to encourage individuals, communities, and organisations to share their personal experiences and actions of what they’re doing to adapt to and combat climate change. Sharing stories is a powerful tool for connecting people and inspiring this necessary collective action. By sharing our journey and solutions on social media using #ScotClimateWeek, we can help others understand the impact of climate change and motivate them to take action.

If you’re feeling inspired by the #StoriesForChange being shared, we’ll be posting lots of ways you can help tackle climate change through the Adaptation Scotland programme’s activities and partners.

Get involved

Wondering how to get involved? The Scottish Government has provided free resources to help you get started. Visit the Net Zero Nation website to access the free toolkit.

Throught the week, the Adaptation Scotland programme is running a series of events, including:

Illustration of a rural area in Highland

Highland Adapts brings communities, businesses, land managers and public sector together to facilitate transformational action towards a prosperous, climate-ready Highland.

The Highland Adapts partnership was formally established in 2021 when nine founding partner organisations committed to working together: Forestry and Land Scotland, NHS Highland, The Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Changeworks, Sniffer, NatureScot, Highlands and Islands Climate Hub, Zero Waste Scotland.

These organisations agreed to distribute power throughout the partnership, recognising that diverse partners should be involved in Highland Adapts. Knowledge sharing and collaboration are key to everything that Highland Adapts does.

The objectives of Highland Adapts are to:

Highland Adapts is currently developing the first regional climate change risk and opportunity assessment for Highland, and has recently published a pioneering Economic Assessment of Climate Change Impacts.

Find out more

Adaptation Scotland has supported Highland Adapts by:

 

Climate Ready South East Scotland logo

Climate Ready South East Scotland is a new project to support collaborative climate action in the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region. The project is being led by Sniffer, working in partnership with the region’s six local authorities: City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Fife, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian.

Between November 2023 and March 2025, Climate Ready South East Scotland will carry out a detailed assessment of the climate risks and opportunities faced by the region. This assessment will both draw on the best available scientific evidence, and work with communities across the region to gather and share their experiences of climate change. The assessment will inform decision-making across the region, laying the foundation for collaborative climate adaptation action

Climate Ready South East Scotland will:

The project is being delivered as part of the Regional Prosperity Framework, with support from Capital City Partnership. It is funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Scottish Government.

Find out more

Adaptation Scotland has supported Climate Ready South East Scotland by:

  • Working with local authorities and other stakeholders to develop the business case and secure funding for the project
  • Co-designing the scope for the regional climate risk and opportunity assessment

Dundee Waterfront SuDS

Adaptation Scotland are supporting partners within Tayside (Dundee, Angus and Perth and Kinross) to develop a new Regional Adaptation Partnership to address climate risks at a regional scale.

The Partnership is at a very early stage in its development and are currently undertaking stakeholder engagement activities to involve a wide range of people and organisations across the region in defining a shared vision and priorities for the new partnership.

Over the course of this year, the Partnership aims to have a shared vision and approach to collaborative working that will support a business case to secure long term funding and support for adaptation action in Tayside.

INVITATION TO QUOTE

Project aims

Adaptation Scotland is supporting Tayside Adaptation Partnership by:

  • Undertaking stakeholder mapping and engagement work to create a joint Vision of what an Adaptation Partnership in Tayside would be
  • Developing a business case for an Adaptation Partnership to assist in securing long term support and financing for the implementation of adaptation action in the region
  • Developing shared plans for communications, branding and messaging for the region
  • Exploring mechanisms to improve data sharing and decision making across the region, including longer term Governance structures for a Partnership.

Get involved

The River Clyde in Glasgow at night

Climate Ready Clyde is a leading cross-sector initiative funded by 12 member organisations and supported by the Scottish Government, to create and deliver a shared vision, strategy and action plan for an adapting Glasgow City Region. The initiative is the most established regional climate adaptation partnership in Scotland, and was initiated through the Adaptation Scotland programme in 2011.

In 2021 Climate Ready Clyde published the Glasgow City Region Climate Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan. This offers a blueprint to guide the way to a region that can thrive in our future climate. The Strategy and Action Plan is recognised as leading example in Scotland and in Europe. It sets out an ambitious shared vision and takes a transformative, whole-systems approach to climate adaptation, with an emphasis on fairness and ‘just resilience’.

The Strategy includes eleven strategic interventions that form a statement of ambition for the next decade, and sixteen Flagship Actions to accelerate progress by 2025. It is informed by a comprehensive Climate Risk and Opportunity Assessment, and by the Clyde Rebuilt project.

Sniffer provides the technical secretariat for Climate Ready Clyde, acting as a catalyst to create the enabling environment for transformative adaptation. The current members of the partnership are: East Dunbartonshire Council, East Renfrewshire Council, Glasgow City Council, Inverclyde Council, North Lanarkshire Council, Renfrewshire Council, SEPA, South Lanarkshire Council, SPT, University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde and West Dunbartonshire Council.

Find out more

Adaptation Scotland has supported Climate Ready Clyde by:

 

  • Catalysing the establishment of the partnership, including through the development of the original Climate Ready Clyde vision in 2013
  • Developing shared resources and guidance, drawing on the experience of the partnership, including a toolkit for assessing climate risks for built environment projects
  • Continuing to collaborate with the partnership to share learning, support delivery and foster innovation. This has included an event on creating climate resilient communities, engagement through the Public Sector Climate Adaptation Network, and joint working on supporting business climate resilience.

Aberdeenshire Beach

Climate Ready Aberdeenshire (CRA) is a voluntary cross-sector network to create and coordinate Aberdeenshire’s climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy. It brings together the views and expertise of a range of stakeholders from public, private, and third sector organisations, to set out how they can work collaboratively to meet the challenges of a changing climate in Aberdeenshire.

In 2022, CRA published its Regional Strategy for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation.

CRA’s objectives are:

The CRA network includes: Aberdeenshire Council, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Historic Environment Scotland, NatureScot, NESCAN, Nestrans, NHS Grampian, Offshore Energies UK, Scottish Water, SEPA, The Barn Arts, James Hutton Institute, University of Aberdeen and Visit Aberdeenshire.

Find out more

Adaptation Scotland has supported Climate Ready Aberdeenshire by:

 

  • Helping Aberdeenshire Council to use the Adaptation Capability Framework to guide the development of the CRA Strategy
Benbecula from South Uist.

Copyright: Lorne Gill

Outer Hebrides Community Planning Partnership Climate Change Working Group is supporting the Community Planning Partnership to improve climate resilience and deliver action as a whole-societal issue across the islands of the Outer Hebrides, grounded in what is important locally.

The vision of the Working Group is to respond to our climate challenge to enable a safer, healthier and flourishing Outer Hebrides. Through its work, the Group aims to integrate climate adaptation and resilience with societal issues, moving beyond sectoral responses and acknowledging a healthy environment as the support network that underpins everything.

Since being set up in 2019, the Working Group, with close support from Adaptation Scotland, has:

Members of the Working Group include: NatureScot, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Community Energy Scotland, Community Land Scotland, Hebridean Housing Partnership, NHS Eilean Siar, Police Scotland, Scottish Youth Parliament, Fire and Rescue Service, SEPA, Tighean Innse Gall, Third Sector Interface Western Isles, University of the Highlands and Islands, Western Isles Libraries, and the Western Isles Emergency Planning Group.

Climate Hebrides has been formed as a “doing body” accountable to the Working Group, and is taking forward projects and actions that are comprehensive in outlook and inclusive in delivery.

Our Project Summary to tell the story of our work with the Group, and the lessons learned.

Download the project summary

“We have worked very closely with Adaptation Scotland who have given us clear direction and support as we have collated evidence, considered risks, engaged with communities and produced our Climate Rationale and Case for Action. Putting it simply – we would not be in the position we are in today without their advice and support. There is still much to be done, but with our increased understanding of the issues and risks we are in a much stronger place.”

David MacLennan, Outer Hebrides Community Planning Partnership Working Group Chair, NatureScot

Adaptation Scotland has supported the Outer Hebrides Community Planning Partnership Working Group by:

 

  • Strengthening local partners’ understanding of climate impacts and resilience, and the importance of a partnership approach for adaptation planning and action
  • Supporting the local partners to codevelop their local evidence base on climate trends, projections and impacts and make complex information accessible
  • Expanding engagement and partnership working, helping to build relationships between local organisations as a trusted intermediary and facilitating connections to creative partners and other national and regional networks and opportunities
  • Creating mechanisms for different types of organisations and communities to explore together how the changing climate will impact their place, what is important to protect and why, and the cobenefits of adaptation
  • Exploring ways to gather, validate and visualise community voices and local knowledge, and build these into adaptation planning activities
  • Facilitating events and workshops and developing communication and engagement resources such as handouts, mapping activities and stakeholder maps
  • Drawing in additional partners, research, and funding including a collaboration with the Met Office to develop the climate storyline project
  • Continuing to support the next phase of work through ongoing membership of the Working Group

Further resources

Using the Climate Ready Places tool in a workshop

Aberdeen Adapts is a framework for city-wide working on climate adaptation. The framework incorporates the views of local organisations and communities and sets the direction to build long-term city resilience. Aberdeen Adapts acknowledges that the key to adaptation for the city is to collaborate, share experiences, build knowledge and understanding and work together to develop solutions.

41 local public bodies, businesses and communities participated in the development of the original Aberdeen Adapts framework, which was published in 2019. It was then refreshed in 2022 to align with the Net Zero Aberdeen Routemap and to take on board new information, policy drivers and climate risks.

The Aberdeen Climate and Nature Pledge has been created as commitment by the organisations and people of the City of Aberdeen to act within their own organisations and lives to contribute towards both the Net Zero Aberdeen Route map and Aberdeen Adapts framework.

Find out more

Adaptation Scotland has supported Aberdeen Adapts by:

 

  • Supporting the initial development of Aberdeen Adapts starting in 2016, following a competitive application process led by Aberdeen City Council and the University of Aberdeen
  • Using a Local Climate Impacts Profile to help Aberdeen City Council to assess it’s vulnerability to climate change. Download the case study.
  • Helping to engage local communities with the development of the framework through a series of workshops in 2017, including using the Climate Ready Places lesson plans with schools across the city.
  • Working with Aberdeen City Council, Creative Carbon Scotland, and Robert Gordon University to create a mini arts festival in Middlefield focused on involving communities in the story of our changing climate. Watch the video below to find out more about this project
Aberdeen Adapts video thumbnail

Arts and climate adaptation – engaging communities in the Aberdeen Adapts project

Place-based adaptation

There are a growing number of regional and city-based climate adaptation partnerships across Scotland.
  • Every place is unique, and so are the impacts of climate change on that place, and the actions required to adapt. The challenge of climate change is too big for individual organisations to tackle alone, so we need to adapt together – central and local government, health boards, public bodies, communities, business, third sector, and individuals.

     

    Adaptation Scotland has helped to initiate and grow partnerships including Climate Ready Clyde, Highland Adapts, and Climate Ready South East Scotland. We continue to work closely with these established initiatives, whilst also catalysing new and emerging partnerships in collaboration with local organisations.

  • As part of the third Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3), the Scottish Government has committed to expanding regional adaptation partnerships to cover the whole of Scotland by 2029. This approach aims to ensure priorities are decided regionally, adaptation is locally-led, and action takes place at a greater pace and scale.

     

    You can find out more about Scotland’s pioneering regional and city-based adaptation partnerships below. If you’re interested in establishing a new collaboration in your area, or want to get involved with existing initiatives, please get in touch.

CONTACT US

Regional adaptation partnerships

A bridge stretches across a river into the distance.

The Tay Bridge

Adaptation Scotland is supporting the formation of a new regional adaptation partnership in Tayside to address climate risks. We are inviting local people and organisations to help shape a shared vision and priorities through sector-specific events.

The climate in Tayside is changing and the region is experiencing warmer, wetter weather, increased storms, and higher sea levels, all of which is set to continue even if we achieved net zero tomorrow. We need to adapt to these changes to allow us to become more resilient and ensure Tayside can continue to flourish.

At this early stage, we want to involve people and organisations across the region in defining a shared vision and priorities for the new partnership. Four sector specific events have been designed to provide opportunities for different groups to have a say in what the partnership could be, what it could do and how it could work, and we are inviting people who live or work in the area to join in.

Each workshop will explore how a regional partnership can advance adaptation in Tayside, using these three key questions:

Each event will run from 12:30pm – 3pm with lunch available from 12:15pm. Space is limited, so we ask you to register no more than 2 people per organisation or group. If you want more people to attend, please contact [email protected] and we will do our best to accommodate you.

Please register via Eventbrite for the event most relevant to you. Each event will be tailored to that audience. If you are unable to attend your preferred event, please contact us rather than booking onto another event.