Strategic Risk Assessments

The Adaptation Scotland programme has developed guidance and tools to support organisations in undertaking climate change risk assessments. A strategic climate risk assessment is used to evaluate climate risks across your organisation or for key services / asset portfolios. This strategic ‘scan’ helps to understand the changing likelihood and consequence of a range of potential risks for your organisation. It enables you to prioritise climate risks, allowing you to better focus limited resources.

The guide has been informed by best practice approaches, including the Climate Change Committee’s UK Climate Change Risk Assessment and the ISO14091 Standard on climate change adaptation and risk assessment.

‘Connecting climate risk and strategic priorities: Guide to strategic climate change risk assessments’ can be used along with editable versions of the risk assessment templates in the accompanying Excel spreadsheet.

The Adaptation Capability Framework identifies four capabilities that every public organisation will need to adapt to climate change, providing step by step tasks to guide your adaptation journey.

Public Sector Climate Adaptation Capability Framework Handbook

This handbook is an introduction to climate change adaptation for Scotland’s public sector. It provides an overview of the Climate Adaptation Capability Framework, which identifies four capabilities for a climate ready public sector. This booklet should be used alongside online Supporting Guidance which contains additional information about each task in the Framework.

New for 2025, the Handbook provides an overview of how the updated Public Sector Climate Adaptation Capability Framework can be used by any public sector organisation in Scotland to accelerate action on adaptation. It introduces the Framework, and outlines the four capabilities that an organisation will need to develop to progress adaptation.

Since publication of the first version of the Framework in 2019, more than 60 organisations have used the Framework to build their capabilities and benchmark their progress. We are proud that the Framework won the 2020 IEMA Sustainability Impact Award for Climate Resilience and Adaptation, and has gone on to inspire many similar adaptation capability approaches.

Adapting to climate change is not a standalone challenge – the actions that we take to adapt should deliver many benefits for society including addressing inequalities, supporting sustainable economic growth and nurturing a healthy natural environment. The Framework supports organisations to consider how adaptation support progress against wider societal outcomes and maximise co-benefits.

The public sector have a crucial leadership role to play in driving this response for a more climate resilient Scotland.

Gillian Martin MSP, Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy

Starter Pack

Organisations getting started on adaptation may wish to start off by viewing the starter pack. The Starter Pack provides detailed guidance on the first stage tasks of the Framework. 

It is for professionals with limited prior knowledge of adaptation or for those working in organisations where adaptation work is in the very early stages.

It will also be useful for organisations that have progressed adaptation, to review and reflect on any steps they may need to revisit. Tasks and accompanying templates are provided to guide the initial adaptation actions needed to progress to the rest of the Adaptation Capability Framework.

An updated version of the Starter Pack will be published in March 2025, but the existing resource will still provide you with clear and actionable guidance on taking your first steps towards adaptation action in your organisation.

Benchmarking tool

New for 2025, the updated Public Sector Climate Adaptation Benchmarking Tool helps illustrate an organisation’s adaptation journey along the Public Sector Climate Adaptation Capability Framework. It should be used to provide a baseline assessment of your organisation’s current adaptation capabilities and how their development progresses over time. It highlights which capability areas the organisation is excelling at and others where more work may be needed. It can aid communication and engagement to show what your organisation is aiming for and the steps needed to get there.

The Benchmarking Tool aims to assess the adaptation progress of an organisation, not an individual employee, team or department. The tool, therefore, may need to be completed by a small group of colleagues initially, and then finalised through discussions with management and/or different departments.

This updated version of the tool aligns with the updated version of the Public Sector Climate Adaptation Capability Framework tasks, and also includes enhanced reporting features. It has also been optimised for screen readers, and has both red-amber-green and blue-scale colour options.

Public sector

The public sector has a crucial role to play in enabling Scotland to adapt to climate change. Taking a strong, proactive approach will ensure that vital public assets, infrastructure and services are fit for current and future generations and able to deliver positive outcomes across society.

Adaptation Capability Framework

The Climate Adaptation Capability Framework identifies four capabilities that every public sector organisation will need to adapt to climate change, providing step by step tasks to guide your adaptation journey.

Adaptation Capability Framework

Public Sector Climate Adaptation Network

The public sector has a crucial role to play in enabling Scotland to adapt to climate change. The Network is now comprised of over 60 public bodies who work together to benchmark their progress and identify and share learning on climate change adaptation.

PUBLIC SECTOR CLIMATE ADAPTATION NETWORK