Background

Every five years, by law the UK Government is required to prepare a National Adaptation Programme (NAP). This sets out what Defra, who lead the Government’s response on climate change adaptation, plans to do to make the UK more resilient to the impacts of climate change, including more frequent and intense heatwaves, flooding and periods of water scarcity.

The third iteration of the NAP was published in July 2023. In it, Defra emphasise the critical role local authorities have to play in adapting their local communities, through building adaptive capacity, prioritising risks and co-creating responses to these.

“Local authorities combine strong local expertise, core decision-making powers and strategic responsibilities with the ability to convene local partners from communities and businesses. Therefore, they are crucially positioned to drive forward climate adaptation actions tailored to their unique local circumstances.”

Third National Adaptation Programme

How we can help

For your local authority, SWM can:

• Assess how the weather and climate currently impacts the local area.
• Analyse the latest data to produce visual outputs showing how the climate is likely to change in future.
• Create vulnerability maps of the area, showing where the greatest impacts are occurring now, or likely to occur in future.
• Translate these into impacts that are most likely to affect the local area, including on health, infrastructure, business, the built and natural environment and communities.
• Undertake an assessment showing the likelihood and impacts of specific risks occurring in the near- and longer-term future.
• Produce a tailored action plan for the local area.
• Prioritise actions depending on various factors including resource availability, urgency of risk and benefits of implementation.
• Allocate actions to critical audiences, including the a range of local authority teams, healthcare providers, businesses, central Government and communities.
• Analyse and provide advice on how to embed adaptation into your corporate and strategic plans, and integration with other key priorities including Net Zero.
• Engage with stakeholders throughout the whole process, ensuring that the adaptation plan is truly co-created with those who know the local area best.

Case studies

We can help you

Contact SWM’s Climate Adaptation Lead, Alan Carr, to find out how we can help you produce an adaptation plan and associated works for your local area.

“Working alongside SWM on this important initiative has been an incredibly rewarding experience. Climate Change poses many threats to Lincolnshire, and SWM managed no mean feat in helping us to identify and address the risks to the features of the region that define it, but are also most vulnerable” 

Dan Clayton, Sustainability Manager, Lincolnshire County Council

“The professionalism and expertise offered by SWM throughout the process ensured the delivery of a high quality product which met our specification. I would highly recommend them to any local authority wanting to start work on climate change adaptation.”

Dan Green, Deputy Chief Executive, Rugby Borough Council

“The Climate Change Adaptation Plan that SWM produced for Herefordshire has helped to provide us with a clearer picture of what is needed, and will enable us to prioritise our next steps in rising to meet the challenges of a changing climate. Most impressive was SWM’s approach to stakeholder engagement and we were thrilled with the number of people they managed to engage with.“

Mary Burton, Sustainability and Climate Change Officer, Herefordshire Council