Scotland's Climate Change Plan – 2026-2040

Adaptation: Delivering a Climate-Resilient Future

Future emissions will determine the scale of climate adaptation needed later this century, but past emissions – and the still-rising global emission trends of today – mean climate impacts are not just already being felt here in Scotland, but will intensify in the coming decades. This means that alongside our mitigation efforts, climate adaptation is now essential so we can build resilience across Scottish communities, public services, business and our natural environment.

This is a vital investment in our future, as the costs of taking preventative action now are significantly lower than trying to recover from climate-related impacts later, especially those caused by severe weather events affecting communities.

In September 2024, the Scottish Government set out a renewed approach to climate resilience through the Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3). SNAP3 is built around five strategic outcomes, which reflect the overarching goals for a climate-resilient Scotland:

1. Connecting our natural environment to increase resilience,
2. Preparing our communities to be more resilient to climate impacts,
3. Supporting our economy, businesses and industry to be responsive to both risks and opportunities of a changing climate,
4. Delivering climate resilient public services and infrastructure, and
5. Ensuring Scotland is taking action at the international level on climate adaptation.

To deliver these outcomes, SNAP3 sets out 23 delivery objectives, each linked to specific areas of policy and practice - ranging from infrastructure and public health to biodiversity and land use. These objectives have been assigned to lead Scottish Government Directorates or public bodies and they are supported by 38 indicators that form the basis of a new monitoring and evaluation framework, allowing progress to be tracked annually.

SNAP3 emphasizes collaboration across sectors, and integrates place-based fairness and inclusion, ensuring that adaptation efforts consider social justice and the needs of vulnerable populations.

Many policies deliver co-benefits for adaptation and emissions reduction. For example, restoring degraded peatlands not only improves water retention and reduces flood risk but also prevents the release of stored carbon. In the marine environment, resilient, biodiverse coastal habitats do not just improve coastal protection from storm surges or rising sea level, but can also act as powerful carbon sinks.

Similarly, woodland creation helps stabilise soils, reduce flood risk, and cool urban areas, while also sequestering carbon and supporting biodiversity. Retrofitting buildings to improve energy efficiency is another example of a dual-benefit policy: it reduces emissions from heating and cooling while also protecting vulnerable populations from extreme heat during heatwaves. Finally, the transition to a decarbonised energy grid will require significant investment in infrastructure to ensure resilience to existing and future climate impacts.

The Scottish Government recognises these dual benefits across climate mitigation and adaptation areas, as reflected both in the design, delivery and monitoring of the Scottish National Adaptation Plan and this Climate Change Plan.