Guidance

Climate change adaptation reporting – fourth round guidance summary

Published 15 October 2025

1. Introduction

1.1 Preface

This is a summary of the guidance that was provided to reporting organisations for the fourth round of Adaptation Reporting Power 4 (ARP4).

Reporting for ARP4 closed on 31 December 2024. You can still send reports or assessments, at any time, to climate.adaptation@gov.uk. Your report won’t be used for ARP4 but will be used to gather evidence on the UK’s resilience to climate impacts to support ongoing government policy development. Reporting runs in a five-year cycle. Reporting in round 5 (ARP5) is anticipated to start in late 2026 and run until late 2029.

We will consult on its strategy in due course.

1.2 The importance of adaptation

Climate change is impacting and will continue to impact all parts of the economy, affecting how organisations operate, how effectively and efficiently they can deliver their functions and services, and their ability to continue delivering previously agreed levels of service.

It is essential that organisations that are responsible for important infrastructure and services assess the risks and impacts of climate change and make the necessary plans to respond, as part of their organisational strategies, operational planning and procedures, and risk management processes.

This is not limited to physical assets. All aspects of an organisation’s ability to deliver its functions can be impacted by climate change, including:

• staff wellbeing
• supply chains
• productivity
• reputation
• profitability

Reliable, working infrastructure underpins society and enables it to function effectively. Infrastructure adaptation is important to ensure that services like water and energy remain accessible to the public during climatic events and that interconnected infrastructure networks are protected, so that disruption in one part of the system does not have a knock-on effect for another. 

We use a broad definition of infrastructure for the purpose of climate adaptation reporting, as it involves a wide range of organisations with responsibilities for many different assets and services required for the effective functioning of society, in which we include human wellbeing and a thriving natural environment. This can include engineered ‘grey’ infrastructure such as:

• transport
• telecommunications and power networks
• information

This can also include human services-based infrastructure, such as:

• healthcare
• regulators
• local government and finance

As well as green and blue infrastructure such as:

• our national parks
• forests
• seas and coastlines.

These assets and systems often overlap and depend on each other to perform effectively.

1.3 The benefits of adaptation reporting 

Successive rounds of reporting have shown that it helps organisations make climate risk management a leadership priority and integrate it into their governance, strategy and operations.

It supports organisations to identify relevant climate change risks, incorporate these into current risk management processes, assess their exposure and take action to reduce their vulnerability. It can lead to adaptive measures being implemented that would not otherwise be identified. Over time, it leads to more mature planning and cost-effective, outcome-focused responses to climate change.

A cyclical reporting process ensures climate change risk information is kept up to date, as scientific knowledge of climate impacts and approaches to risk management evolves. It also helps share understanding of climate impacts, risks and their management, to support other organisations and UK government to consider best practices and implement measures to maintain resilience.

Reporting also encourages organisations to engage with other interconnected sectors, upon which their functions depend, to address gaps in or barriers to strengthening their resilience to climate risks. Reports provide a basis for further engagement to address these interdependencies.

Conducting a robust assessment on climate change can result in a greater understanding of opportunities, producing future benefits as well as reducing vulnerability.

Reporting raises the profile of climate resilience work within the organisation and beyond – showing leadership, demonstrating progress, raising awareness, building capacity, and making examples of good practice publicly available. It also provides vital information to the government on the readiness of important sectors for climate change.

Further benefits of reporting have been provided by reporting organisations in response to the government’s ARP4 consultation, including the fact that Adaptation Reporting Power’s (ARP) focus, specifically on the physical risks of climate change to critical national infrastructure and services, provides value beyond that of other disclosure regimes. It can also support organisations to meet other statutory or regulatory requirements on adaptation.

1.4 How the information is used

ARP reports fit into the government’s work on adaptation by highlighting the risks and adaptation actions being taken in important infrastructure (both man-made and natural) sectors across the UK. As well as building evidence and examples of good practice, they encourage innovation, investment and competition as demand for adaptation goods and services increases.

Some reports contain information on critical national infrastructure (CNI). These are the assets, systems and networks that provide the essential functions upon which the UK’s security, economic and social stability depends. Reports from both CNI and non-CNI bodies inform policy makers about the level of preparedness of individual organisations and the sectors they sit within. They also provide information about how different systems interact with each other and the interdependent risks they may be subjected to.

They are particularly relevant to the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA), which assesses the risks posed by the impacts of climate change for the UK, and the National Adaptation Programme (NAP), which underpins the UK’s response to strengthening resilience to climate change risks. Reports are being used to support the independent analysis conducted by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) to inform the next CCRA (CCRA4).

In ARP4, for the first time, reports were invited from local authorities and combined authorities who wished to pilot the process. Reports can support local authorities’ communications and engagement programmes, support business cases for funding and finance to achieve their climate change objectives, increase regional and national influence through leadership, underpin the case for improved learning and skills, and provide the data and knowledge needed to drive informed decision-making and change.

You can find adaptation reports for the:

• first round of ARP
• second round of ARP
• third round of ARP
• fourth round of ARP

The CCC (an independent, statutory body) reviewed and assessed adaptation reports in their CCC third round review.

Previous ARP reports were used in the 2022 CCRA and the 2023 NAP3.

1.5 Scope of reporting

The Climate Change Act 2008 gives Defra’s Secretary of State the power to direct certain bodies (‘reporting authorities’) to report. A reporting authority is defined as ‘a person or body with functions of a public nature’ or ‘a person who is or is deemed to be a statutory undertaker’ under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (or the relevant planning legislation in Scotland and Northern Ireland). 

The power was used in the first round of reporting but it has been voluntary since then. In round 4, we asked for reports from key sectors such as:

• energy generation and transmission
• water systems and services
• telecommunications
• transport
• finance
• health
• land management
• agriculture and the environment.

We also ran a reporting pilot with local government.

1.6 ARP and other reporting regimes

Your organisation may already provide reports on your climate adaptation plans and risk management activities, either internally or for an external audience. Some sectors and organisations are subject to other reporting regimes. This guidance aligns with these as much as possible.

ARP plays an important role by sharing more detailed information on adaptation, risk assessments and action plans, from organisations not necessarily covered by other reporting regimes.

Organisations who report under another reporting regime can reuse this detail, where relevant, in their ARP report. More detail about alignment with other reporting regimes can be found in Section 3.2.

This approach is under review for future rounds of ARP reporting.

2. An overview of ARP4

Section 61 of the Climate Change Act 2008, states that “the Secretary of State may issue guidance to reporting authorities about:

(a) assessing the current and predicted impact of climate change in relation to the authorities’ functions, 

(b) preparing proposals and policies for adapting to climate change in the exercise of their functions, and 

(c) co-operating with other reporting authorities for that purpose.”

This guidance provides more information about what organisations were asked to include in their ARP4 reports and advice on relevant aspects of climate adaptation management.

2.1 Objectives for round 4 of reporting

The third NAP published in 2023 set out the government’s strategy for the fourth round of climate change adaptation reporting. The objectives of the fourth round of adaptation reporting were to:

• support the integration of climate change risk management into the work of reporting organisations
• build understanding of the level of preparedness of key sectors to climate change, at a sectoral and national level, and inform other parts of the government’s statutory cycle for climate adaptation, including CCRAs and NAPs

2.2 Length, structure and format of reports

Reporting template (Annex C)

This section has a template to help structure reports for new and returning reporting organisations.

The style, format and length of your reports are flexible. In ARP4 we asked for concise reports of around, but not limited to, 10 to 15 pages for the narrative sections.

Risk assessment and actions plans

For a risk assessment and action plan template (Excel spreadsheet), contact the Defra Climate Adaptation Team at climate.adaptation@defra.gov.uk.

This is most useful if you have not reported before. It provides a guide on what to include but may be adapted to suit your own risk management processes, or to draw upon and show changes from previous reports (where relevant).

We are keen to encourage consistency in reporting within sectors and so sectors may collaborate among themselves or with other sectors to produce tailored templates which fit with their existing risk matrices and processes. Sectoral collaboration and dialogue in the context of ARP, for instance on interdependent risks and shared common themes, may be reflected through a joint sectoral narrative.

Evolving best practice in climate change adaptation (Annex A)

This section provides further guidance on ‘what good looks like’ for reporting. The advice in this annex represents the ‘gold standard’ for reporting in ARP4, however we recognise that there is a wide variance in capacity and experience in organisations and full adherence to this advice may not be feasible.

3. Guidance for new reporting organisations, including local authorities

Organisations that have not reported under ARP before, including local authorities, should provide a climate change risk assessment in their report. This should identify the climate risks that could affect your ability to deliver your functions and objectives as an organisation (also referred to in this document as ‘functional delivery’). This should include all the relevant aspects of your delivery. Climate change may have a range of impacts both direct and indirect – as far as possible both should be covered in your assessment. This will vary between organisations, but could include risks to physical assets, staff and the workplace, supply and demand, finance, and business processes.

We recognise that local authorities have a range of responsibilities, governance and management arrangements. Your individual risk assessments and action plans should cover the assets and services that are the responsibility of your particular local authority and recognise the different systems and approaches for these across your organisation and beyond. As such, this guidance is not a prescriptive set of rules to follow but helps to find the most suitable approach to develop, prioritise and plan for climate risks. Section 3.1.2 provides further guidance on scoping your risk assessments and report to focus on functional delivery, which may help you prioritise.

There are 2 templates for you to use which set out the critical information to include in your report, these are:

• a template to help you structure your report in Annex C
• a template for your risk assessment and action plan available from climate.adaptation@defra.gov.uk

These can be tailored to build upon your existing business continuity and risk management practices as appropriate.

3.1 Conducting a risk assessment

The best practice for assessing climate risks and their impacts is to integrate risk assessment and risk management into your existing management systems, thus becoming part of ‘business-as-usual’.

In recent years, several standards have been published to support organisations to integrate adaptation, including International Organisation of Standardisation (ISO) 14090, ISO 14091, British Standards (BS) 8631, as well as ISO 14092 specifically for local government. Other standards exist and we point to some of these under Section 6. This ARP4 guidance does not repeat the detail of the standards but has been developed to be consistent with the internationally and nationally agreed standards of ISO and BS. The approach to embedding could be through the consideration of climate impacts within separate environmental, safety, quality, asset management, or financial management systems, or embedding climate impacts and their effects into an integrated business management system.

Annex A has a summary of the standards available for supporting adaptation management (ISO 14090), conducting an adaptation risk assessment (ISO 14091), and requirements and guidance on adaptation planning for local governments (ISO 14092).

You may also wish to consider other publicly available risk assessment guidance such as the Green and Orange books. These are aimed at government departments and bodies, but include useful guidance for all organisations, in particular the Green Book supplementary guidance: climate change and environmental valuation.

Include brief details of the extent to which ISO 14090, ISO 14091, ISO 14092 and BS 8631 (or other publicly available standards) have been used to support you to embed adaptation into your organisational management systems.

Provide brief detail on how climate adaptation best practice has been embedded into your business management systems.

3.1.1 Preparing to assess risks and opportunities (pre-planning)

In order to successfully assess the impacts of climate change to the delivery of an organisation’s functions, there are some conditions that need to be in place. ISO 14090, clause 5, expands on these (Annex A has more information on standards and best practice). They essentially require top management commitment, capacity building and the means to enable access to climate adaptation expertise and climate impact information.

Provide detail on:

• how you have secured top management commitment (both political and corporate) to embed climate change risk management within your organisation (please signpost any relevant policy statements)
• how adaptive capacity is being built within the organisation
• how you ensure access to information and expertise about climate impacts and climate risk management best practices (including knowledge of historic events and learning from these and collaboration with other organisations within the sector or who may have experienced climate impacts, either locally, regionally, nationally or indeed globally)

3.1.2 Risk assessment scope

When carrying out a risk assessment, it is essential to understand the reason for carrying out the assessment and the desired outcomes. Risk assessment methodologies have been developed and tailored to support a variety of risk decisions, for example, protection of people (safety and well-being), protection of the environment, protection of property and management of financial risks.

For ARP reporting, the focus of an organisation’s risk assessments is to assess the climate change impacts which may threaten the delivery of an organisation’s functions (delivery of public services, utilities or other functions, such as regulation or environmental protection) or are already doing so.

Outline the function or functions your organisation performs (and for local authorities, identify overlaps with other authorities as required).

Explain how you have focused your risk assessments on examining current (present-day) and predicted climate change impacts which may threaten delivery of your functions. This should be inclusive of interdependent and cascading risks. See Section 3.4 for more guidance on addressing interdependencies and cascading risks.

Explain how your risk assessment process enables you to capture any learning on the management of climate risks and any opportunities you can realise, to inform the next CCRA and NAP. Please see the CCC’s sector briefings outlining risks by sector.

3.1.3 Risk assessment scenarios

When considering the impact of climate change on an organisation’s functions, it is necessary to understand how present and future projected climatic conditions might influence delivery of those functions. 

There is inherent uncertainty in assessing climate risks. A main source of uncertainty in projecting future levels of warming is the unknown path of future emissions reductions. As a result, we cannot, with certainty, forecast the amount of warming we may see in the future. However, we can explore the impacts and risks associated with differing levels of warming over different timeframes by considering different climate scenario.

Contact climate.adaptation@defra.gov.uk, for supporting resources on climate scenarios, climate impacts and other related material if needed.

Explain the timeframes and levels of warming that you have used (for example, your assumptions) to generate climate scenario data which you use within risk assessments.

Provide information on the scenarios your organisation uses to explore impacts to your functions. As a minimum these should be consistent with examining risks for:

• present-day (near term)
• mid-century (medium term) – a 2°C rise
• end of century (long term) – a 2°C rise
• end of century (long term) – a 4°C rise

2°C and 4°C rises refer to changes in the global mean temperature compared to a pre-industrial baseline (UK changes will differ, regionally and locally).

The present-day scenario should include recognition that the climate has already changed and thus might expose infrastructure or other services to impacts for which they were not originally designed. The present-day scenario is also often used as a baseline, against which future risks can be evaluated.

It may not always be possible to find climate data specifically associated to these scenarios, especially when looking at older data. It is acceptable to base risk assessments on a proxy to the scenario, that is consistent with those listed.

The following outlines the acceptable proxy parameters for each climate scenario.

Scenario 1: Present-day (near term)

Range of timeframe: past, present and near future (to 2030).

Levels of warming or pathways: historic observed warming levels or trends, existing climate and weather records, experienced extremes (in past and present), and near-term projections to 2030.

Scenario 2: Mid-century (medium term) – a 2°C rise

Range of timeframe: by 2050 (range could include 2040 to 2060).

Levels of warming/pathways: projections for the mid-century are broadly similar irrespective of the emissions scenario, therefore, consider the conditional probability range (not just the average), specifically the 10th to 90th percentile range for a single emissions scenario, like RCP2.6 (as in CCRA3) .

Scenario 3: End of century (long term) – a 2°C rise

Range of timeframe: by 2100 (range could include 2080 to 2100).

Levels of warming/pathways: a 2°C rise by 2100 or a pathway consistent with this – such as RCP2.6 or SSP1-2.6.

Scenario 4: End of century (long term) – a 4°C rise

Range of timeframes: by 2100 (range could include 2080 to 2100).

Levels of warming or pathways: a 4°C rise by 2100 or a pathway consistent with this such as RCP6.0 (as used in CCRA3), RCP8.5 (if previously used or with justification) or SSP5-8.5 or SSP3-7.0 .

Note that RCP 2.6 and SSP1-1.9 are unlikely to provide sufficiently conservative information for robust adaptation planning, though these pathways are useful to illustrate baseline impacts associated with a rapid decarbonisation and thus illustrate the avoided impacts vs higher emissions scenarios. 

You may choose (for instance for longer term investments or activities with higher associated risks) to examine longer timescale impacts or impacts associated with greater levels of warming (such as high impact scenarios). If so, describe the additional scenarios you have used and why.

Provide information on whether you are using average (national) climate information or specific local information. This may vary depending on the stage of risk assessment, for example, screening could be based on national averages whilst a detailed design for a specific high-cost project might necessitate local information.

Explain how you have explored the inherent modelling uncertainty involved with translating levels of global warming to specific impacts. For example, have you considered the range of model outputs (such as the 10th to 90th percentiles for your chosen scenarios or pathways) or have you taken a conservative view using a worst case only (such as only using 90th percentile data).

3.1.4 Hazard identification and risk screening

The CCC’s 3rd Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk, Technical report identified 61 climate risks across multiple sectors of our society (but note that other risks to your functions may exist). The CCRA can act as a tool to support risk identification and prioritisation. Many of these risks also feature in the UK National Risk Register 2025. Organisational procedures should detail how the organisation performs risk screening to identify the specific threats to delivery of their functions. This screening should include both the direct effect of climate impacts and any significant indirect systemic risks.

The screening should also consider both acute and chronic physical risks. Acute physical risks refer to those that are event-driven, including increased severity of extreme weather events, such as storms or floods. Chronic physical risks refer to longer-term shifts in climate patterns (for example, sustained higher temperatures) that may cause sea level rise or chronic heat waves and drought.

It is common to base risk screening on worst case credible scenarios. For climate change adaptation, current advice is to consider the impacts associated with a climate scenario consistent with a 4°C rise by 2100 or equivalent (for example, RCP6.0 or RCP8.5 projected for 2080 to 2100). This does not preclude use of longer term or more severe scenarios, such as low likelihood, high impact scenarios, or high impact scenarios, when carrying out more detailed risk assessments.

Explain how you use climate risk and impact information (such as the resources described above) to identify or screen for a subset of risks relevant to you and how you keep this shortlist up to date (for example, to manage changes in understanding of climate impacts).

Provide a list of the climate risks which are relevant to delivery of your functions. To support development of CCRA4, indicate which of the sectoral risks in the CCRA3-IA Technical Report are relevant to you and spotlight any new or emerging risks which are not already included in the UK CCRA3 or not listed for your sector in the CCC’s CCRA3-IA.

3.1.5 Risk analysis and evaluation

The processes of risk analysis and risk evaluation aim to qualify or quantify the level of risk to an organisation and evaluate the acceptability (or tolerability) of the level of risk, sometimes in terms of their financial impacts. This involves analysis of the likelihood or frequency of events occurring and the extent and severity of the consequences of those events.

Some organisations also assess the urgency with which it is necessary to implement measures to control the risks in comparison to the timescales involved in doing so. For example, a rapidly increasing risk which entails long lead times to implement control measures might incur a higher urgency score and therefore a higher risk ranking than a risk where control measures are simple and quick to implement.

The detail of how to carry out these assessment stages will normally already exist within an organisation’s various management systems (for instance safety, environment, finance, assets). As set out above, international adaptation standards provide further detail on how to integrate climate change risks into these processes. The risk assessment process should be outcome focused and specific to your organisation’s functions.

It is essential that you describe, for each risk relevant to the delivery of your functions:

• the current and future likelihood of that risk impacting upon your functions (qualitatively or quantitatively)
• the consequences of the impact (including potential impacts on other organisations – cascading risks and interdependencies)
• the overall risk (for instance, the risk to functional delivery) and whether this is or will in the future become an unacceptable level of risk which requires (or will require) adaptation action to control it

It may be beneficial to highlight around 10 of your highest risks and use this to aid prioritisation for your action planning (see Sections 3.2 and 3.3 below for more on this).

Where available, include an estimate of the financial impacts associated with each risk, with a clear statement of whether these costs represent direct costs to your organisation or costs to your organisation plus wider costs to society. If you are reporting on holistic costs, please attempt to provide a breakdown between direct and wider costs.

 Highlight any risks you have identified that are not included in the UK CCRA or you feel are not accurately assessed (for example, because recent experience has shown these risks to be increasing at a faster rate than previously assessed).

3.1.6 Risk management

Describe how you have used your climate change risk assessment to inform development of other aspects of your management systems procedures associated with:

• developing and monitoring implementation of adaptation plans
• developing indicators and other processes for monitoring and evaluation (for example, corporate risk metrics or registers), including any trigger points that may cause review of risk assessments and adaptation plan
• scoping or focusing of corporate auditing associated with adaptation risk management
• reporting to top management (both political and corporate) on the overall effectiveness of your management systems to ensure the necessary adaptive actions are being implemented to maintain delivery of your functions in the face of current and future climate impacts

3.2 Scaling and prioritisation

We encourage new reporting organisations to pull from existing risk assessments for other reporting requirements. Other reporting regimes include:

• the Greening Government Commitments (GGCs)
• Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
• Climate Disclosures Project (CDP) reporting
• Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)
• International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Climate-related disclosures.

Organisations can co-ordinate internally to review present day requirements and manage overlaps and address common elements with the aim of avoiding duplication of work and reducing burdens.

The templates in the Annexes identify key information for organisations to prioritise. We are interested in critical risks – risks which disrupt core services that an organisation provides or where a failure to respond to a risk may have cascading impacts on another organisation creating a critical issue.

3.3 Action plans and implementation

Your report should contain an action plan setting out how you intend to manage the risks you have identified in your risk assessment. A template to help structure your action plan and risk assessments is available on request from the Defra Climate Adaptation Team at climate.adaptation@defra.gov.uk.

Your action plan should show:

• actions that are clearly linked to the risks they address
• clear timescales and ownership
• the approach to monitoring and evaluation

Use Annex B for best practice on monitoring and evaluation.

Prioritise the risks you wish to address in your action plans. If so, briefly set out your methodology for prioritisation. This is likely to be based on the type of risks mentioned above, which you identify as most likely to occur or most likely to cause disruption to your services, or to the services of other sectors.

Include a brief description of any measures necessary for your organisation to maintain its functional delivery in the face of climate impacts. Such measures may include improvements to management systems, operational procedures or design of assets to increase their resilience. Examples of measures already being implemented can be found at Jenkins and others. (2022) UK Adaptation Inventory (version 1). This could also include any actions you believe are needed from other organisations or within the next NAP, to support you to adapt and to manage cascading risks.

Include brief details of any measures:

• recently implemented
• soon to be implemented (by 2030)
• required longer term (beyond 2030)

3.4 Reporting on interdependencies

Interacting risks pose one of the biggest challenges when assessing climate risks. System resilience to climate change goes beyond individual risks. Infrastructure sectors, public bodies and the functions they deliver (in both the built and natural environment) and the social structures which interact with them, are connected together and with the wider environment in which they operate. This means that vulnerabilities in one part of the system can cause problems for others, and impacts can impact beyond the primary asset or service, affecting the economy, the environment, health and wellbeing.

We recognise that such interdependencies create complexity, and that the number of interdependent risks for some organisations and local authorities could be very large. So, as a minimum, explain your approach to identifying and managing the interdependencies that may impact your organisation’s ability to deliver its functions in the context of the changing climate.

Where possible, assessment of interdependent risks should be integrated into your risk assessments.

Include appropriate and proportionate details of any action on interdependencies in your action plans.

There are different interdependencies that could be considered when preparing risk assessments, and we would encourage reporters to consider different types:

• physical interdependencies – where one sector’s operation depends on the commodities or services offered by another sector
• geographic interdependencies – occur when geographic properties, such as proximity, lead to correlated responses in multiple systems to a hazard event

If you have not previously considered interdependencies, you may wish to focus on identifying and assessing your upstream dependencies, that is, how climate-related failures in other sectors might impact on your ability to operate.

Risks should be ranked and prioritised in terms of the scale of impact that cascading risks have on functional delivery (major, moderate, minor, or no impact).

Report on how your governance arrangements and collaboration with relevant upstream organisations are addressing these risks, or if not yet, your plans for addressing these. Where possible include case studies of actions taken or examples of barriers to taking action and what could have been done to address them.

If possible, also report on what collaboration actions your organisation is doing on downstream dependencies. Ideally, these risks would also form part of your risk assessment.

To manage and collaborate on interdependencies, reporters can cooperate via multi-sector groups of stakeholders, private discussions, or wider local or regional level discussions. Organisations and local authorities, together with collaborating organisations, could then:

• report, record and discuss historic weather-related climate incidents, corresponding design standards, and other relevant materials
• discuss and map systemic interactions, dependencies and interdependencies
• discuss failure points that could lead to cascading impacts and identify/prioritise any critical failure points
• share information on common climate scenarios (present and future) and examples of past events or near misses to help identify interdependencies
• identify common risks between organisations, overlapping or common responsibilities for risk management, and any gaps in addressing these risks, to help identify opportunities for mutual investments in adaptation actions
• identify barriers to taking action and consider how to address them

After identifying risks and sharing information, organisations, where resources allow, could begin to incorporate interdependencies into adaptation action planning and response strategies.

4. Guidance for organisations who have reported in rounds 1 to 3 of ARP

If you provided a report to government on your climate risks and actions in rounds 1 to 3 of ARP, we recommend that in line with the approach taken to reporting in round 4 (which closed at the end of 2024), your report should focus on updates since prior reports. You should include progress updates to the action plans you set out in your previous risk assessments or assessments. You may submit updates to your risk assessments and governance arrangements if there is anything substantive to include.

We have included a template to help structure your reports at Annex C.

4.1 Action plans and implementation

You should review your existing action plan based on implementation experience and any updates to your risk assessment.

Include brief details of how you have reviewed your action plan.

Provide a progress update on actions since your previous report. Your updated action plan should show:

• actions that are clearly linked to the risks they address
• clear timescales and ownership
• the approach to monitoring and evaluation – see Annex B for good practice examples
• where actions have been met or missed, where relevant, you should comment on how well the actions addressed the risks and whether any additional action is required to meet the goals in your plan

If your previous report did not include an action plan, or actions against the risks in your risk assessment, or it did not include the information on ownership and monitoring set out above, this should be set out in your report.

Include a brief description of any measures necessary for your organisation to maintain its functional delivery in the face of climate impacts. Such measures may include improvements to management systems, operational procedures or design of assets to increase their resilience.

Examples of measures already being implemented can be found at Jenkins and others. (2022) UK Adaptation Inventory (version 1). This could also include any actions you believe are needed from other organisations or within the next NAP, to support you to adapt and to manage cascading risks.

Include brief details of any measures:

• recently implemented
• soon to be implemented (by 2030)
• required longer term (beyond 2030)

4.2 Risk assessments

You may submit an update to your previously submitted risk assessments, rather than revising it in full. You should update your risk assessment proportionally with changes to your respective risk landscape. Also refer to the preceding guidance for new reporting organisations (Section 3.1) and consider whether this triggers a review and revision of your assessments (either now or in the future).

Over time, it would be beneficial for all organisations to move to common or harmonised risk management and assessment approaches. For example, by including the minimum set of climate scenarios described in Section 3.1.3 of this guidance. This will make it easier to both compile and compare risks at a national level and as a basis for common dialogue between different organisations on dependent and interdependent risks, and cascading risks which may affect more than one system.

Indicate in your report whether your last risk assessment may be considered current and where it can be found, and if not what changes you are making to it. This might include:

• information on any climate risk related incidents or near misses that have occurred since your last report and how you have dealt with them
• changes to the assessments of risk likelihood or severity that may have arisen based on, for example, recent extreme weather events or trends
• any new qualitative or quantitative analysis that has given rise to revised risk scoring
• any changes in risk scoring arising from regular internal risk management reviews
• any risks you have identified and assessed but which you feel are not adequately represented in CCRA3 or any actions you feel government may need to include in future iterations of CCRA or NAP to support you maintain resilience

We are maintaining a flexible approach for how organisations choose to conduct their risk assessments. If your risk assessment methodology has changed substantively, you should detail the changes in your report.

If you need further information about risk assessment, please refer to the preceding guidance for new reporting organisations and Annex A on standards and best practice.

4.3 Reporting on interdependencies

We would like organisations who reported in rounds 1 to 3 to build on their previous assessment of interdependencies wherever possible.

As a minimum, explain your approach to identifying and managing interdependencies, including a description of any sectoral or cross sectoral groups or forums you use to collaborate on these and cascading risks.

Include appropriate and proportionate details of any action on interdependencies in your updated action plans.

Where possible, assessment of interdependent risks should be integrated into your risk assessments, if they have not been previously.

If you have not previously considered interdependencies, you may wish to focus on identifying and assessing your upstream interdependencies. See further guidance on assessing and managing interdependencies in Section 3.4.

5. Guidance on sectoral overviews and composite reports

5.1 Composite reports

Your organisation may act as a representative for a number of related organisations, for example, if you are a trade association or chair an industry forum. On this basis you may wish to engage in climate risk assessment and action planning as a proportionate response to climate risk for a sector.

Sectoral reporting has many potential benefits. It provides an opportunity to improve how your sector understands how climate change affects current and future practice and what is needed to address the challenges it presents. It can start individual organisations on a journey of climate risk assessment, integration and action planning with the support of others. It can help:

• pick up signals of change
• improve how the sector works together with others to understand systemic risks and joint responsibilities
• improve understanding of the skills needed within organisations and how these can be acquired
• improve the transition from awareness of risks to the implementing of adaptation actions, ensuring that climate change considerations are effectively brought into decision making

Composite reports should contain as much specific information as possible about the risks affecting the sector and the actions being taken by its component organisations. This could include:

• information drawn from company risk assessments or other reporting, highlighting risks and actions being taken at company level – consider commissioning individual organisations to provide you with their risk assessments and actions plans and ensure this guidance pack is available to them to support their work
• information about the sector’s overall risk profile – this should include an assessment of the risks under 2°C of global warming, and 4°C (or a climate scenario proxy as detailed in Section 3.1.3 – please present your risk assessment approach transparently)
• information about the sector’s interdependencies and how the players are working together to mitigate them
• highlighting aspects such as the assets, services and value chains of the sector that are particularly vulnerable to current and future climate impacts in the short, medium and longer term (and under high impact, low likelihood scenarios) and the factors contributing to this, such as asset location and state of repair, decision making processes and lifetimes and potential for lock-in and maladaptation processes, levels of service and other regulatory requirements, potential for supply chain diversification, requirement to meet shareholder profit margins, workforce health and safety
• what needs to change to ensure sector-scale climate resilience
• barriers, enablers and levers for change to support more effective adaptation in the sector
• key decision points and opportunities to drive action on adaptation

Please refer to the preceding guidance for new reporting organisations for further guidance on conducting risk assessments, which includes information on climate scenarios.

5.2 Overview reports

Overview reports (for example, by trade associations) may be submitted in addition to individual reports, in sectors where individual reporting is standard. In these cases, less organisation-specific information is relevant, as this is contained in the individual reports. These reports can provide valuable insights about:

• a sector’s overall risk profile
• potential vulnerabilities within interconnected systems
• ways in which the sector is working together and with others to manage climate risks, and plans for the future
• the quality and consistency of reporting by the sector
• barriers, enablers and levers for change to support more effective adaptation in the sector

5.3 Reports by regulators

Reporting by regulators should focus on your roles in assurance, leadership and regulation, and how this creates the enabling (or constraining) conditions for other organisations to develop their adaptation responses. You should include a description of:

• how you are building capacity in your organisation to ensure you maintain an effective and adequate regulatory oversight of adaptation best practice, its implementation by those you regulate and evolving information on climate impacts and the risks to those you regulate
• any climate change adaptation guidance you publish or provide to those you regulate or any forums you support to guide or facilitate those you regulate to maintain resilience and meet their statutory duties

Reports by regulators do not need to focus on the details of operational risk management that would be conducted by those you regulate.

You should include:

• an overview of the risks impacting the regulated sector
• reflections on progress and preparedness
• information on how the regulator is using its powers and levers to support the effective management of climate risk in their sector.

Reports may also include:

• comments on barriers and enablers to adaptation, gaps and additional action that could be taken
• the future of the industry’s adaptation response
• the scope of the regulatory functions and how this impacts the adaptation response by other organisations in the sector
• interactions with other sectors and other regulators to understand and promote the effective management of interdependencies
• comments on the quality and consistency of reporting in the sector

As a general guide, reports from regulators should be concise, with a recommended length (not a limit) of around 10 to 15 pages.

Regulator remits do vary, but for most, your reports will not need to include a risk register style risk assessment, or to list all possible risks affecting the sector.

5.4 Sectoral consistency

Consistency in reporting and use of consistent risk assessment methodologies within a sector means those within it are better able to benchmark their performance and learn from one another. Regulators, trade bodies and industry forums can play a valuable role in bringing together multiple players in a sector to help determine how their reporting can best meet their own needs.

We encourage organisations to come together in this way to discuss the approach to reporting in their sector, and to tailor and refine our suggested templates according to their needs.

Organisations that do not fit within a sector may also tailor the reporting template to their own needs.

Annex A – Evolving best practices in climate change adaptation

This annex provides an overview of agreed best practice on adaptation, based on the ISO standards 14090 and 14091, which have been adopted as BS, and ISO 14092 for local authorities. It can be applied at any scale, from organisation to project level and to a depth proportionate to climate risks.

Payment is required to access ISO standards and British Standards. We have provided brief summaries of these standards as general guidance.

Depending on the financial resources available to local authorities, they may wish to use advice below as guidance and instead make use of publicly available resources aimed at local authorities.

Summary of ISO 14090 standards

ISO 14090 specifies principles, requirements and guidelines for adaptation to climate change. It provides organisations with a practical, structured approach for addressing and adapting to the effects of climate change, over the short, medium, and long term.

Sections 1 to 4 outline the scope, definitions, and principles of the standard. These should be understood before progressing forward. Section 5 onwards outlines the steps to follow to incorporate adaptation.

Section 5 – Pre-planning

Assess the business area, project or specific asset management’s ability to carry out steps 6 to 10 by identifying roles and responsibilities, additional resources, and setting governance. Then create a work programme to address gaps and commit to human and financial resources. Identify knowledgeable stakeholders.

Section 6 – Assessing climate change impacts, including opportunities

Assess how the business area, project or asset’s activities, products and services might be impacted by climate change, including slow onset impacts and sudden impacts due to extreme weather events. This must cover cross-cutting issues, and both direct and indirect impacts. Use climate information to assess past and future trends, such as temperature and precipitation.

Section 7 – Adaptation planning

Produce an adaptation plan, using different sources of knowledge, information, and data. Identify climate change adaptation priorities and actions within, and incorporate into policies, strategies, and plans.

Section 8 – Implementation

Senior managers will commit, take accountability for, and implement adaptation plan and actions within. Focus on transforming the adaptation plan into activities, by producing an implementation plan.

Section 9 – Monitoring and evaluation

Prepare a monitoring and evaluation plan that assesses progress against the implementation plan. It should assess actions, inputs, outputs, resources, roles and responsibilities, processes, and capabilities. This is aimed at an organisation wide level, so not all requirements may be relevant scales.

Section 10 – Reporting and communication

Communicate climate change adaptation work to both internal and external stakeholders. If communicating externally, messages should be supported by an adaptation report that is accessible to any interested parties.

Summary of ISO 14091 standards

ISO 14091 provides guidelines to assess climate change related risks, covering vulnerability, impacts and risk assessments.

Sections 1 to 4 outline the scope, definitions and introduce climate change risk assessments. These should be understood before progressing forward. Section 5 onwards outline the steps to follow to incorporate adaptation.

Section 5 – Preparing a climate change risk assessment

Each risk assessment is unique so it’s important to establish the context, identify objectives and expected outcomes, establish a project team, determine the methodology, set a time frame and prepare an implementation plan.

Section 6 – Implementing climate change risk assessment

To carry out a risk assessment, hazards and potential impacts need to be understood. Impact chains should be developed. Participatory workshops should be considered to ensure understanding of the system at risk. Indicators will then need to be identified, and data evaluated. Adaptive capacity should also be taken into consideration when assessing risk. Analyses of cross-cutting interdependencies can deliver relevant additional information.

Section 7 – Reporting and communication risk assessment

A report can be used to present the climate change risk assessment results. The results of the report can be communicated in a range of ways and should be tailored for the target audience. Senior managers will commit, take accountability for, and implement the adaptation plan and the actions within it. Focus on transforming the adaptation plan into activities, by producing an implementation plan.

While these adaptation standards are standalone, adaptation is most effective when integrated into organisational processes (for example, management systems), such as for risk, safety, quality, environmental and asset management. ISO have published a Whitepaper to support integration of ISO 14090 within ISO 14001, which focuses on Environmental Management Systems.

Summary of BS 8631: using adaptation pathways for decision making

BS 8631, which is currently a British only standard, provides guidance to support the business area, project, or asset managers to implement adaptation pathways (APs). APs can be used within a broader planning process or as a stand-alone adaptation planning tool. The business area, project or asset managers needs to continually review, respond and adapt to new conditions, information, methods and solutions as they emerge, which can be facilitated by adopting a pathway approach set out in the standard.

There are 9 sections below, which act as a cycle, to follow to develop APs.

1. Planning.
2. Understand the risks and opportunities from current climate.
3. Understand risks and opportunities from a range of future climate scenarios, including the highest climate scenarios.
4. Consider adaptation options for different levels of risks and opportunities, and their thresholds.
5. Identify and evaluate the implications of interdependencies with other drivers.
6. Assemble a route map of adaptation pathways.
7. Evaluate and choose adaptation pathways.
8. Report preferred adaptation pathways.
9. Set out implementation, monitoring and evaluation plans.

Summary of ISO 14092: requirements and guidance on adaptation planning for local governments and communities

ISO 14092 provides guidelines for how local government and communities can develop adaptation plans, considering regional variations of climate impacts. It focuses on vulnerability, impacts and risk assessments. The aim of local governments and communities undertaking an adaptation planning process is to protect people’s life, property, the environment and wider societal and economic activity from the adverse impacts of climate change, both current and in the future, while taking advantage of any opportunities, including those arising from adaptation measures introduced .

There are 5 main steps below, which act as a cycle that local governments and communities need to follow.

1. Continuous learning and improvement.
2. Pre-planning – framing adaptation roles, responsibilities and duties of team (clause 5).
3. Assessing – identify and assess impacts, vulnerabilities, risks and opportunities (clause 6).
4. Formulating – context, identify adaptation measures, adaptation plan, implementation and monitoring and evaluation plan, confirming (clause 7).
5. Acting – implementing (clause 8), monitoring and evaluating (clause 9) and reporting and communicating (clause 10).

Annex B – Monitoring and evaluation for adaptation

We recognise how challenging it is to implement effective monitoring and evaluation of adaptation action. This is down to the complexity of adaptation and the associated challenges of identifying and developing appropriate indicators. Common challenges among ARP reporting bodies include:

• proving cause and effect for adaptation actions in a complex system with multiple drivers of change
• tracking progress to a moving target in a system with interacting and cascading climate and socioeconomic risks
• the mismatch between short evaluation cycles and the time needed to effect change, especially for the natural environment
• access to high quality, affordable and trustworthy data

Adaptation process indicators (such as the number of plans adopted, or buildings retrofitted) are relatively simple to measure and so more common. Indicators that measure adaptation outcomes (such as climate-sensitive sectors of the economy being better adapted) are rarer as they are harder to measure.

Typology of indicators

Indicators can refer to different stages of the adaptation process. It is useful to distinguish between the following indicators.

Output indicators

Output indicators describe products or services created by adaptation interventions. They indicate whether actions have been implemented but do not indicate whether adaptation has been successful. Example indicators include:

• newly adopted regulations
• training conducted on new or upgraded infrastructure

Outcome indicators

Outcome indicators describe results of outputs. They indicate whether actions have increased resilience or lowered climate risks, climate impacts, economic damages or negative effects on human health. Example indicators include:

• a reduction in building permits issued for high flood risk areas
• whether an adaptation measure has reduced the magnitude of infrastructure service disruptions caused by extreme weather
• recorded damages from flooding

Climate change impact indicators

Climate change impact indicators describe impacts attributed to climate change. They indicate reductions in climate impacts (or lower increases than would have been the case without adaptation). Example indicators include:

• recorded instances of heat strokes due to hotter summers
• the extent and magnitude of flooding and drought
• adverse impacts on ecosystems

Climate change impact indicators can also be adaptation outcome indicators if the measured changes in climate impacts are linked to an adaptation intervention.

Guidance for the monitoring and evaluation of adaptation

The following guidelines for adaptation monitoring and evaluation were developed from themes emerging from Defra-led monitoring and evaluation workshops in 2022, an internal literature review by the Environment Agency and the AdaptME toolkit

Clarify the purpose of your evaluation and how results support decision making

Clearly set out what the evaluation needs to find out (the evaluation questions), how you will know (the indicators) and how the resulting findings can be used to support policy development.

Define clear outcomes to measure progress against

Take time to agree the ultimate outcome. Lack of clarity, or lack of transparency and agreement, can be a barrier to effective and efficient adaptation planning.

Monitoring and evaluation should be proportionate and realistic

Be clear about what can be addressed in the monitoring and evaluation, balancing the ultimate ambition with what is feasible given the available time, capacity and budget.

Involve those who are influenced by, or have influence on, the monitoring and evaluation process

Be clear who these stakeholders are and why they might have an interest. Where possible, involve them throughout the monitoring and evaluation design and implementation.

View the monitoring and evaluation of adaptation strategies and plans as an iterative, formative process to support continuous improvement

Given inherent uncertainty in adaptation planning, monitoring and evaluation approaches need to be flexible and designed to support learning and continuous improvement based on what emerges over time.

Combine indicators to create a meaningful measurement of progress

There is no one set of climate change adaptation indicators as adaptation is context specific. It is how a mix of indicators are combined that determines their effectiveness at tracking progress towards the desired goal.

Design monitoring and data access to be efficient and cost-effective

Access to high quality, salient, trustworthy data is core to good monitoring. Having no indicator is better than a bad indicator. The use of existing datasets should be encouraged, and any data limitations should be made explicit at the start. New datasets should comply with the FAIR principles: findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.

Share what you have learnt

Having defined the audience, determine the purpose, the timing to inform decision making, the level of detail and the preferred formats for communication. Be clear about any limitations in the underlying data and provide opportunities for feedback and discussion on the usefulness of the monitoring and evaluation and how it has been communicated.

Monitoring and evaluation standards

Clause 9 of BS EN ISO 14090 advises on monitoring and evaluation for adaptation plans. The aim of monitoring and evaluation is to ensure that actions are having the desired effect, or to highlight early enough if they need to be changed. It states that an monitoring and evaluation plan should be developed to assess progress against implementation. It should consider actions, inputs, outputs, resources, roles and responsibilities, capabilities, processes and so on. Where possible, indicators should be used.

Monitoring and evaluation should be carried out both periodically and on an ad hoc basis when new information comes to light, to ensure learning and evidence can inform adaptive planning.

Audit and risk assurance

Your organisation’s own internal audit and risk assurance procedures may play a role in monitoring the effectiveness of your adaptation actions. This could be through a specific, standalone piece of work by auditors, or as part of wider audits of your organisation’s activities. You may also be subject to, or request, periodic external audits. An audit can give top management an indication of the performance of the organisations and its system against stated objectives, which can in turn drive improvements.

The National Audit Office’s good practice guide has been designed to help support government organisations’ audit and risk assurance committees (ARACs) to challenge senior leadership on their approach to managing climate change risks. On risk monitoring, it recommends teams ask the following questions.

1. Does management understand how its overall risk profile is likely to change as a result of climate change risk?
2. Has management defined core performance metrics, and key risk and control indicators for climate-related risks, and have risk appetite and tolerance been factored in? And how do those metrics influence strategic decision-making, investment plans and budget considerations?
3. Does management conduct deep-dive reviews over climate-related risks? have results of previous reviews, risk responses or remediation plans been assessed for progress and effectiveness? are plans updated, monitored and reported?
4. How are the results of climate change risk monitoring shared with the rest of the organisation? And is there a feedback loop between the results of monitoring, the assessment of the residual risk, the effectiveness of the risk management activities and the decision-making?
5. How often does management re-assess the impacts of existing climate-related risks? for example, if the organisation is impacted by legislative changes or new government targets, does management track these changes?
6. Is there any benefit to be gained from a specific oversight group or board with responsibility for climate change to monitor progress against climate change risks?

Monitoring and evaluation and Adaptation Pathway best practice example 

The Thames Estuary 2100 strategy (TE2100) takes an adaptive approach to managing the risk of flooding in London and the estuary. The Environment Agency monitors how the estuary and climate is changing and adapts its approach in response by carrying out reviews every 5 years and updating the plan every 10 years. 

They monitor indicators of change every 5 years. These include changes to the following in the estuary: 

• the number of people 

• the number of homes and businesses 

• habitat for wildlife 

• the condition of flood defences 

They also track and assess: 

• updates to climate change projections, including the rate of sea level rise 

• changes to government policy 

• updates to scientific guidance 

Every 10 years, they review and update the Thames Estuary 2100 Plan, to make sure it’s still relevant and takes account of all these changes. The key findings from the 10-year monitoring review were published in 2021. They confirmed that: 

• the plan provides benefit to 1.42 million people, 586,000 homes and £321 billion of residential property 
• sea level in the estuary has risen over the last century 
• sea level rise in the estuary has accelerated over the last few decades 
• most tidal flood defences are still in a good condition – but defences are deteriorating faster due to climate change 
• we need to improve our understanding of how we will manage the Thames Barrier and closures of the barrier over time  Read more about major updates to Thames Estuary 2100 between 2012 and 2023. 

Annex C – Reporting template

Introduction

Organisational profile

You should include:

• the name of your reporting organisation
• coverage of the report (geographical coverage of report, assets and services covered, number of organisations covered if sectorial report)
• organisational context: summary of the organisation’s aims, objectives, duties, functions, assets and services which are covered in the report, and therefore impacted by climate change

To minimise duplication, make clear where shared responsibilities are being covered by another organisation. For example, a unitary council that has shared responsibilities with a combined authority will outline their report’s coverage and what the combined authority’s report would cover.

Governance, management and strategy

How is climate change governed in the organisation? (how is climate change action managed and embedded within the organisation?).

How is top management commitment to adaptation demonstrated and how is the organisation developing its adaptive capacity? (to include resources, capabilities and access to external information or expertise).

Does the organisation have specific climate change adaptation objectives in its corporate plans, strategies, business planning or similar or relevant documents? (you can cross reference or include any links to the documents).

Has the organisation benchmarked against adaptation standards (such as ISO 14090/91/92, BS8631 or other standards) and does the organisation have a top management commitment and a plan to improve management systems to embed this best practice?

What other publicly available adaptation guidance associated with adaptation management are your organisation reviewing or embedding? Local authorities may use ADEPT’s Good Practice Guidance for local government and Local Partnerships’ Climate Adaptation Toolkit for a local authorities.

Understanding risks and challenges 

When completing this section refer to the ‘Risk assessment and action plan template’ (available from the Defra Climate Adaptation Team at climate.adaptation@defra.gov.uk) to ensure you meet minimum standards for a robust methodology for identifying and assessing risks.

New reporting organisations and local authorities

Risk assessment scope

Clearly outline function or functions you perform.

Outline how your risk assessment examines climate change impacts which threaten delivery of functions, inclusive of interdependent and cascading risks.

Describe how is learning on the management of climate risks and opportunities captured?

Risk assessment scenarios

Explain timeframes and levels of warming that you have used.

Provide information on the scenarios your organisation uses to explore impacts to your functions. You have the option to examine longer timescale impacts or impacts associated with greater levels of warming than those recommended.

Provide information on whether you are using average (national) climate information or specific local information.

Hazard identification and risk screening

Explain how you use climate risk and impact information to identify or screen for a subset of risks relevant to you and how you keep this shortlist up to date.

Provide a list of the climate risks which are relevant to delivery of your function.

Risk analysis and evaluation

It may be beneficial to highlight around 10 of your highest risks and use this to aid prioritisation for your action planning.

Describe for each risk relevant to the delivery of your functions:

• the current and future likelihood of that risk impacting upon your functions (qualitatively or quantitatively)
• the consequences of the impact (including potential impacts on other organisations – cascading risks and interdependencies)
• the overall risk (the risk to functional delivery) and whether this is or will in future become an unacceptable level of risk which requires (or will require) adaptation action to control it

If possible and where available, an estimate of the financial impacts associated with each risk.

Highlight any risks you have identified that are not included in the UK CCRA or you feel are not accurately assessed.

Risk management

Describe how you have used your climate change risk assessment to inform development of other aspects of your management systems procedures.

Returning reporting organisations

You may submit an update to your previously submitted risk assessment, rather than revising it in full. You should update your risk assessment proportionally with changes to your respective risk landscape.

After reading the guidance for new reporting organisations (Section 3), have you identified any gaps in your existing risk assessment? If so, refer to the guidance for new reporting organisations to resolve these issues.

Indicate in your report whether your previous ARP risk assessment may be considered current and, if not, what changes you are making to it.

We are maintaining a flexible approach for how organisations choose to conduct their risk assessments. If your risk assessment methodology has changed substantively since ARP4, please detail the changes in your report.

Interdependent and cascading risks

As a minimum, you should explain your approach to identifying and managing the interdependencies that may impact on your organisation’s ability to deliver its functions in the context of the changing climate.

You should also include appropriate and proportionate details of any action on interdependencies in your action plans.

Where possible, assessment of interdependent risks should be integrated into your risk assessments and risks should be ranked and prioritised in terms of the scale of impact that cascading risks have on functional delivery.

If you have not previously considered interdependencies, you may wish to focus on identifying and assessing your upstream interdependencies.

Adaptation action plan and implementation

When completing this section you should refer to the ‘Risk assessment and action plan template’ (available from the Defra Climate Adaptation Team at climate.adaptation@defra.gov.uk) to ensure you meet minimum standards for a robust action tracking and monitoring process.

Your action plan should show:

• actions that are clearly linked to the risks they address
• clear timescales and ownership
• the approach to monitoring and evaluation

You may prioritise the risks you wish to address in your action plans.

Your report should include a brief description of any measures necessary for your organisation to maintain its functional delivery in the face of climate impacts.

Include brief details of any measures:

• recently implemented
• soon to be implemented (by 2030)
• required longer term (beyond 2030)

(Optional) Best practice case studies

Include details about the organisation or business area that owns the function, location and outline the context and what makes this an example of best practice.