Scottish climate change adaptation programme 2019-2024: analysis of responses to consultation

1. Introduction

1.1 In February 2019, The Scottish Government launched the consultation 'The Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme: A Consultation Draft^[2] '.

1.2 This poses a range of questions about the second statutory five-year Climate Change Adaptation Programme ('the Programme'), due be published later in 2019. The draft Programme provides a new framework that encompasses existing relevant policies that concern climate change adaptation. Building on the existing approach, it will focus on results, measurement and performance, reflect recent climate change projections plus an assessment of the current programme by independent advisers.

1.3 An outcomes-based approach connects the draft Programme with global goals and Scottish Government policies. For the first time, the Programme will explore how individuals, communities and businesses make decisions based on climate change factors.

1.4 Achieving the ambitions set out in the Programme will involve a range of partners, stakeholders and government departments including sectors which have not yet fully considered climate change adaptation.

1.5 The national consultation forms a key part of the final stages of Programme development. Questions cover complex and broad-ranging issues - including seven outcomes, various sub-outcomes, and the Strategic Environment Assessment, a detailed 73-page document which describes the impact on the environment of the draft Programme as identified by Scottish Government. The questions centre around three themes:

1. The proposed overall approach;

2. Proposed vision, outcomes, and associated policies; and,

3. Views on the Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) prepared in accordance with the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005.

Profile of participants and engagement with the consultation

1.6 The consultation achieved 73 responses^[3] from individuals and organisations. Individual participants provided roughly one-fifth of the responses (15 out of 73); the remaining 58 responses came from a broad range of organisations. Categorisation by the analysis team revealed diversity among the organisations that took part in the consultation, as shown below:

• Eleven local authorities, including Angus Council and Stirling Council.
• Eleven membership organisations, for example, Built Environment Forum Scotland and RTPI Scotland.
• Eight public bodies, such as Historic Environment Scotland and Transport Scotland.
• Seven environmental campaign groups, such as Keep Scotland Beautiful and RSPB Scotland.
• Seven businesses, including Smart Village Scotland.
• Five research/academic institutions, for example, the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) and The James Hutton Institute.
• Five partnership organisations, such as the Central Scotland Green Network Trust and the Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership (MGSDP)
• Three 'other' third sector organisations, including the Climate Psychology Alliance.
• Children from Sunnyside primary school in Glasgow also submitted a joint response to the consultation.

Analysis and reporting

1.7 The Lines Between was appointed to undertake independent analysis and report on the consultation responses. Their analyst team developed a coding framework based on themes that emerged during the review and analysis process. Qualitative data (responses to open questions) was coded manually, according to specific themes; quantitative data was analysed with Excel. This analysis process enabled the team to group key messages that emerged from the responses.

1.8 An overview of the responses to each question is provided in this report; individual responses to the consultation are available for review on the Scottish Government's consultation hub Citizen Space.

1.9 Qualitative themes in the data are summarised for each consultation question. While qualitative analysis of open-ended questions does not permit the quantification of results, the summary is presented by the frequency with which views were expressed; from most to least prevalent.

1.10 This report presents the range of views expressed and trends amongst responses. During analysis it became evident that a few participants repeated aspects of their responses across questions. In some cases, parts of a response aligned more closely with another question in the consultation document. To avoid repetition, analysis is presented under the most appropriate thematic heading.

1.11 At the end of each chapter quotes have been included to illustrate key points. These provide useful examples, insights and contextual information, but may not always represent the views of entire groups, such as organisations, sectors or geographic areas of Scotland. Where participants permitted their responses to be published, we have quoted directly. However minor spelling or grammatical errors have been corrected to improve readability.

Report structure

1.12 The Lines Between was commissioned 'to produce a clear and concise report for publication'. This report presents the findings of the consultation analysis.

• Chapter 2 presents a quantitative overview of responses to the consultation.
• Chapter 3 presents analysis of responses to the proposed overall approach.
• Chapter 4 sets out analysis of responses to the proposed vision and outcomes.
• Chapter 5 presents analysis of responses about any additional policies respondents would like to see reflected in the adaptation plan.
• Chapter 6 contains analysis of responses to the SEA.
• Finally, Chapter 7 includes conclusions and reflections for the Scottish Government to consider when developing the final Adaptation Programme.