Scottish National Adaptation Plan Annual Report 2025-2026

Executive Summary

Climate change is already underway. How effectively we respond is one of the defining challenges we face.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has made it clear that we should be preparing now for Scotland to pass +2°C of global warming within the next 25 years. We are building our climate resilience at pace, but there is much more to do to ensure Scotland is ready.

Increasing floods, wildfires, water shortages, coastal erosion and extreme weather events such as storms are disrupting daily life with growing frequency and severity. They damage homes and businesses, strain public services, and cost money. How well Scotland adapts to these changes will be central to our future prosperity and resilience.

Flooding already costs Scotland an estimated £500 million each year. Around 400,000 properties in Scotland — one in eight — are currently at medium risk of flooding, an increase from the last nationwide assessment in 2018. Last year, Scotland also experienced its most severe wildfire season on record. Eastern Scotland recorded its driest year in nearly 50 years, and in 2025 conditions in some parts of the country led to national water scarcity reporting beginning in April, a month earlier than usual.

These are current realities, impacting lives and livelihoods now. The accelerating pace of climate risk means our adaptation and climate resilience efforts must urgently scale up to keep pace. This annual progress report sets out the progress made over the past 12 months in adapting Scotland and building resilience to the impacts of a changing climate.

This progress is presented against a clear backdrop: not simply whether progress is being made – a great deal of positive work is evidenced in this report- but whether what is being achieved is proportionate to the climate risks we face.

Effective climate resilience rests on two principles: acting early and acting together. These apply at every level, from households and infrastructure, to local and national government, and across the public and private sectors.

These principles sit at the heart of Scotland’s third National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3). SNAP3 brings together activity across government and partners to drive national climate adaptation. Published in 2024, the Plan sets out long‑term outcomes for climate resilience across nature, communities, public services and infrastructure, the economy, and Scotland’s international role. These outcomes provide direction beyond individual five‑year planning cycles.

The Plan also sets specific delivery objectives to be achieved within the next five years. This annual progress report presents the implementation record against these objectives over the last 12 months. It also draws on data from the national adaptation monitoring framework, presented alongside policy delivery updates throughout, to provide a more complete picture of how Scotland’s climate resilience is changing year-on-year.

Progress over the past year has achieved some significant milestones. Every NHS Board has now completed a climate risk assessment, providing a clearer understanding of where the NHS is most exposed to climate impacts and helping to prioritise action to reduce those risks. The Climate Ready Infrastructure Scotland (CRIS) Forum has expanded to over 20 infrastructure owners and operators, now working together for the first time to address shared and cascading climate risks. The Trunk Road Adaptation Plan has also been published, setting out actions and timeframes to ensure Scotland’s trunk roads - which make up just 6% of the road network but carry 35% of all traffic and 60% of HGVs - continue to support safe travel and economic resilience.

During this reporting period, Scotland delivered 54% of all new UK woodland creation and the Peatland ACTION Partnership has delivered 15,448 hectares of peatland restoration, exceeding the 2025-26 Programme for Government commitment by 29% supported by £35.5 million of investment. A nature‑positive, restored natural environment is one of the most effective tools available to build climate resilience. Restored peatlands reduce downstream flood risk, support water quality and availability during droughts, and can act as natural wildfire breaks.

Scotland’s national capacity‑building initiative - the Adaptation Scotland programme - continues to expand, with 75 public bodies now engaged in regular training and support on climate resilience. New guidance for the social care sector, a Strategic Action Plan on Wildfires, updated coastal flood mapping, Regional Marine Plans for Shetland and Orkney, and tailored adaptation guidance for the whisky, horticulture and food distribution sectors all represent meaningful progress over the past 12 months.

The newly published ScotClimATE tool and updated SEPA flood maps provide richer data to support decision‑making across sectors, helping organisations better understand climate risks and inform planning and investment. Revised statutory guidance for public bodies also sets clearer expectations on climate scenario analysis, planning for +2°C, and addressing cascading risks.

While the breadth and depth of activity across many sectors and partnerships are captured in this report, there are also areas where more needs to be done to accelerate the shift from planning to sustained delivery.

Understanding where organisations are most exposed to climate risk is a prerequisite for effective action. Climate risk assessment maturity across the public sector is improving, but slowly. In 2024–25, 26% of public bodies had still undertaken no climate risk assessment at all, and among those that had, comprehensive or advanced assessments remain the minority.

We know that connecting natural spaces delivers major benefits for managing flood and urban heat risk. However, as this report sets out, further action is needed: only 36% of local authorities have currently spatially identified nature networks.

There are positive signs for community climate resilience. For example, 89% of adults in Scotland reported they would support others in their community who may struggle during an emergency, such as flooding. However, significant gaps remain. Just 3% of households have installed flood resilience measures, even as flood risk continues to increase.

Along Scotland’s coasts, ongoing collaboration continues to drive how Scotland manages coastal erosion. The Coastal Change Adaptation Fund has supported local authorities to progress the development of coastal change adaptation plans with three now published and fourteen more in development. Significant steps have been taken to monitor the coastline including the capture of LiDAR data and ongoing research and action underway to develop a national coastal monitoring framework, in line with SNAP3 commitments.

Building climate resilience at pace and scale requires working through unavoidable uncertainty. Much of the adaptation effort outlined in this report is focused on laying strong foundations - building capacity to assess climate risks, strengthening national data and support, and establishing the partnerships and networks that will underpin delivery. This work is essential. In several areas, however, including coastal vulnerability, infrastructure interdependencies and retrofitting the building stock, the evidence base is still developing to fully assess whether current action matches the pace and scale of climate change.

In the coming year, the CCC will carry out its independent assessment of Scotland’s adaptation progress, with publication expected by the end of 2026. The assessment set out here reflects our own view: Scotland has much to be proud of in its adaptation efforts — and much more still to do, at a faster pace than we have previously achieved, to meet the scale of the challenge ahead.

Meeting this challenge will help secure the long‑term planning and sustained investment needed to ensure supermarkets remain stocked, people can travel safely, families are not repeatedly flooded, and Scotland’s farming, food and world‑class industries — from whisky and salmon to renewable energy — can continue to thrive as the climate changes.

The long‑term path back to climate stability, and limiting how far the climate changes, will always depend on reaching Net Zero. Scotland must continue to play its part in reducing emissions. But the impacts of past global emissions are already locked in, meaning adaptation is now fundamental to our response to the climate and nature emergency. Nations that plan, invest and act now will be far better placed than those that delay and face higher costs later.