Business Areas

In order to identify and respond to potential threats and opportunities is useful to consider how climate change may affect various aspects of your authority's operations, services and the broader community. The following list of 'business areas' is a modified version of material originally prepared for analysing business applications. It has proved a useful framework for identifying both direct and indirect impacts on local authority activities. It should also help in assessing how climate change will impact on your local community:

people: in the context of local authority activities consideration of potential climate impacts on people can be divided into:

• Implications for your workforce - direct and indirectly employed by the authority. For instance, staff will need comfortable internal conditions in higher summer temperatures in order to function efficiently, and outdoor works will have to take account of greater risks of heat stress and sun exposure.
• Implications for clients for your services, for instance, the young and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to excessive heat, so provision of services to these clients should take account of the projected increases in frequency and intensity of heat waves as a result of climate change.
• Implications for residents and visitors to your area.

demand: changing demand for services as a result of the impacts of climate change is likely to have a significant effect on local authorities. For instance, climate changes are likely to lead to more outdoor lifestyles resulting in changes in demand for parks, sporting and leisure facilities. Warmer winters and hotter summers are likely to lead to changes in the pattern of demand for social and medical support services. There may also be greater tourism opportunities arising both from changing weather conditions in the UK and abroad. Adaptation responses to these types of changes should be considered both for individual service areas and across the authority as a whole.

premises: impacts on building design, construction, maintenance and facilities management. For instance, there may be greater risks of costal, fluvial and flash flooding as a result of climate change. Means of cooling buildings to maintain comfortable conditions in rising summer temperatures will have to be given greater attention in design and refurbishment programmes. On the opportunity side there should be a reduction in winter heating demand. There may be a need for different planting schemes for landscaping open spaces. This is an area that is likely to require both managerial capacity building and actual adaptive action. It is also an area where local authorities can be effective in community leadership by example.

process: impacts on corporate functions and service delivery. For instance, there may be the need to increase the frequency of waste collections in summer to avoid health risks and nuisance from putrefying waste, or to change grounds maintenance regimes in response to shifts in seasonal growing patterns. There may also be the need to revise provision as a result of changing demand for services brought about by a changing climate. The key issue for building effective climate adaptation into local authorities is to ensure that mainstream, corporate management processes take account of changing climate risks in order to plan and deliver services effectively.

finance: implications for investment, insurance and stakeholder reputation. For instance, loss of asset value of vulnerable, poorly climate-proofed buildings, or increased insurance costs as a result of climate-related claims -- with the opportunity to reduce premium costs by demonstrating good climate proofing. Building an effective climate adaptation capacity and ensuring that local authority estate is climate-proofed is likely to have significant long-term benefits in terms of maintaining value of assets and minimizing insurance costs. It should also help to enhance an authority's reputation.

logistics: vulnerability of supply chain, utilities and transport infrastructure - local authorities, like all organisations, are dependent on their supply chains for goods and services. Management processes should be designed to minimise vulnerability to any disruptions to supplies or utilities arising from adverse weather. Local authorities should also ensure that their own transport arrangements are not vulnerable to climate change. There also may be opportunities for synergies between adaptation and mitigation when planning transport provision, and opportunities to influence the community by example.