Aberdeen City Council Partnership working to build city-wide climate resilience

Date added: 15/04/2019

Partnership working to build city-wide climate resilience in Aberdeen:

Aberdeen Adapts was created to drive climate change adaptation action forward and build a climate resilient city. The widespread and interconnected impacts of climate change cannot be effectively managed working alone, and this partnership allows many different stakeholders to have a say in the development of a city-wide framework that will guide adaptation action in Aberdeen (WT2A).

The partnership provides a platform to share expertise and data, giving partners the opportunity collaborate to address the risks and opportunities of climate change. Partnership working can at times be a slow process, but bringing diverse partners with different levels of experience on an adaptation journey will ensure that Aberdeen builds long term, city-wide resilience to climate impacts (WT2B).

As the Adaptation Framework is being developed, some member organisations are progressing their own adaptation action individually and through project partnerships (WT3C). The relationships strengthened through Aberdeen Adapts are helping to break down organisational silos, as traditionally separate organisations are partnering to deliver cross-sectoral projects to meet the needs of our diverse communities.

Maintaining momentum is a challenge for any project, particularly when the people driving actions within organisations already have full workloads. Partnership working can help overcome this hurdle as organisations can build on Aberdeen Adapts successes like the mini arts festival as a tool for community engagement. The arts and creative spaces can helps organisations to engage with diverse stakeholders on climate impact action, and Aberdeen Adapts partners are now working together to develop more projects to engage with Aberdeen’s diverse communities (WT3B).

Aberdeen Adapts is also helping the Council progress adaptation action internally. Guided by the strategic direction of the partnership, the Council is building climate change adaptation into business case templates, and incorporating climate risk into the corporate risk register. To support this, the Council has produced climate risk guidance, and is continuously engaging with staff on climate change, including senior management and elected members.

Partnering to deliver a city-wide adaptation framework is helping Aberdeen City Council ensure that its work programme aligns with broader action to support climate resilience, allowing them to effect change on a larger scale than if acting alone.