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One of the requirements of The Climate Change Act 2008 is that government should undertake an assessment of the risks of climate change for the UK, under both current conditions and over the long term, to 2100. This is to done on a five year cycle with the first report having been laid before Parliament in January 2012. Work to prepare this report and all the supporting documents began as long ago as 2008. Following work on a scoping study, the Adapting to Climate Change (ACC) team within Defra set about arranging a contract to undertake the preparation of a risk assessment. The contract was awarded in September 2009 to a consortium led by HR Wallingford and including:

This core team was supported by many specialists in specific areas of climate science across the sectors that were examined. In all 40 technical specialists worked on the project with input and support from around 120 sector experts. There was a strong interaction with Defra’s ACC team and consultation with across government departments and with the Adaptation Sub-Committee.

The first cycle of the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) posed a complex analytical challenge and because of time and resource constraints it was necessary to build on existing and ongoing evidence and approaches. In the time available it was not possible to assess every risk or sector in detail, so the project focussed on assessing a subset of risks and opportunities where immediate or near term action, either by Government or others, was likely to be most valuable.

The sectors for the analysis were selected based around the major themes in which evidence tends to be organised. In the final evidence report, the analyses by sector were consolidated into a series of themes.

Sectors

  • Biodiversity and ecosystem services
  • Agriculture
  • Forestry
  • Water
  • Floods and coastal erosion
  • Built environment
  • Energy
  • Transport
  • Marine and fisheries
  • Health
  • Business, industry and services.

Themes

  • Agriculture and forestry
  • Business
  • Health and Wellbeing
  • Buildings and Infrastructure
  • Natural Environment.

An extensive programme of stakeholder engagement was an essential component of the CCRA. This was in order to develop a broad appreciation of the key issues, maintain an appropriate focus and track down relevant information. Stakeholders were involved at different points in the process and in different ways, depending on their interests and the type of input they could provide.

The project took two and half years to complete with the main reports being published in January 2012. There was an extensive range of outputs from the projects, many of which can be accessed from Defra's website. . These included:

  • CCRA Act Report – The CCRA Evidence Report and the Government Report together form the report to be laid before parliament as required by the Climate Change Act 2008. Evidence Report - presents the evidence of current and future climate change risks for the UK as a whole to 2100.
  • Government Report (prepared by government) – Using the CCRA Evidence Report as the underpinning evidence, along with the output from other ongoing studies, this report presents the main CCRA findings in the context of current policies and future plans for the development of the National Adaptation Programme.
  • CCRA Summary – Key findings from the CCRA are summarised for policy-makers. Sector Reports –The sector reports document the assessment of risks for each of 11 sectors, and these are cited throughout this report. Their purpose is to provide the more detailed data and information that underpins this assessment.
  • Sector Summaries – Key findings from each Sector Report are summarised for senior UK Government and international policy-makers.
  • Devolved Administration Reports – Following on from the UK-wide assessment, assessments were undertaken for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales in consultation with stakeholders. These reports present the outputs from the UK-wide assessment from the perspective of each country, supplemented with local case studies.
  • Devolved Administration Summaries – Key findings for each Devolved Administration are summarised for policy-makers.
  • CCRA2 Recommendations Report – A report describing the gaps in knowledge and lessons learned during the first CCRA.