CAG Consultants | Working for Communities, Carbon Reducation and Sustainability

Differential social impacts of climate change in the UK for the Scottish and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research

CAG Consultants undertook research to understand the differential social impacts of climate change in the UK. The research, which was commissioned by the Scotland & Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research, highlighted how people who are already living in areas at risk and how area already deprived and doubley disadvantaged by the impacts of climate change.

The research found that changes in the weather, and more extreme conditions, such as heat waves, heavy rainfall, flooding and storms will have significant social impacts on UK society. In particular, climate change will affect physical, as well as mental health and wider quality of life. It will also affect people's access to, and the quality of, basic goods and services such as water, shelter and food, as well as other key priorities for human wellbeing such as education, employment and crime, therefore worsening social deprivation.

The people who are likely to be most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are those:

living in places at risk;
people who are already deprived by the health, level of income, the quality of their homes and mobility; as well as
people who lack awareness of the risks of climate change, the capacity to adapt, and who are less well supported by family, friends and agencies.

Key findings of the work include that community empowerment is critical to building capacity to adapt to climate change, clear and consistent messages on climate change are needed, and climate change demands an integrated response to mitigation and adaptation, with action supporting the wider goals of sustainable development.

The final report provides a social impacts framework that recommends a number of key adaptation responses for government, agencies and community leaders, and recommends a particular focus on community-led adaptation to build community resilience.

Paula Charleson, Sustainable Development and Strategic Partnerships Unit Manager said:

"We welcome this project and its reinforcement of the need for an integrated approach to policy. Crucially, the project will highlight the social impacts we need to consider alongside the environmental and economic impacts, in building our resilience and adapting to climate change".

Kate Wareing, UK Poverty Director, Oxfam added:

"Oxfam knows that it is the poorest people in the UK who will be most affected by climate change - and that we have less than a decade to reduce carbon emissions before we begin to see irreversible, and devastating, changes to the world's climate. That is why we welcome this new report by SNIFFER, which not only identifies the impact of climate change on those on low incomes but stresses the crucial importance of involving low-income and vulnerable communities in developing solutions. Only by putting those most affected at the heart of tackling climate change will measures to prevent this looming catastrophe succeed."

Project partners: SNIFFER, Scottish Government, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, Environment Agency, Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action, Environment Agency Northern Ireland, Forestry Commission.

For more information about this project please contact Helen Chalmers on 01691 828 026 or hc@cagconsult.co.uk.