Presentation by Alan Netherwood to CCCW on Leadership in the Public Sector

1. Climate Change Adaptation
in Local Government
A question of leadership?
NETHERWOOD
SUSTAINABLE FUTURES
Sustainable Development &
Climate Change Consultancy
alan.netherwood@gmail.com
n
Dr. Alan Netherwood
Netherwood Sustainable Futures
Honorary Research Fellow
School of Planning & Geography
alan.netherwood@gmail.com

2. What we are going to cover
• WLGA Climate Adaptation work since
2008 - outcomes
• the current ‘climate’ in local government
• case studies – where has the leadership
come from?
• toolkit
• observations on ‘landscape’
• good leadership on climate adaptation
• bad leadership on climate adaptation
• learning from civic leadership on
adaptation elsewhere

3. Changing Climate: Changing Places Project – 2008-11
AIM - Climate Adaptation Planning and Resilience
PARTNERS - Welsh Local Government Association, Environment
Agency Wales, UK Climate Impacts Programme, Countryside Council
for Wales, University of Glamorgan, Welsh Assembly Government.
4 Unitary Authorities: Cardiff, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Rhondda Cynon
Taff
Consultancy support from Netherwood Sustainable Futures.
OUTPUTS
1.Local Climate Impacts Profiles (LCLIPS) x4
2.BACLIAT (Business Areas Impacts)x 4
3.Risk Management in Council’s and LSBs
4.Action Planning for Adaptation - mainstreaming – no separate
plans
5.Learningfor 22 Authorities, 3 National Parks and Police and Fire
Services
6.Inform WAG requirements under Climate Change Act 2008

4. 2008-11 Changing Climate Changing Places Pilot
Cardiff
Flintshire
Gwynedd
Rhondda Cynon Taff
& training in Brecon Beacons, Powys
2010-12
Denbighshire LSB
Torfaen Local Service Board
Swansea Economic Regeneration Partnership
2012-13 ‘fast track’ authorities on Parts 1& 2
Caerphilly
Carmarthenshire LSB
Monmouthshire LSB
Powys
Continued Support 2012-13 on Parts 1 & 2 & 3
Cardiff
Flintshire
Torfaen
Wrexham
Swansea
Bridgend
Vale of Glamorgan
North East and South East Wales Regional Pilots
WLGA Learning on
Climate Adaptation

5. Engaging with leaders at all levels?
Local Authority
Brecon Beacons NPA
Bridgend CBC
Caerphilly CBC
Carmarthenshire Council
Cardiff CC
Denbighshire
Flintshire CBC
Gwynedd CC
Monmouthshire CBC
Powys CC
Rhondda Cynon Taff
City & County Swansea
Torfaen CBC
Vale of Glamorgan
Wrexham
N, Wales Internal Audit
Involving….
Senior Management and Members
Senior Management
Environment Partnership
Local Service Board
Risk Managers
Local Service Board
LSB Asset and Transport Managers CCRA for
Transport Partners, Social Services & Scrutiny Committee
Local Service Board
Member and Senior Management
Heatwave Action Plan Partners
Asset Managers, Economic Regeneration Partners
Local Service Board
Members
Senior Management and Member Training
Internal Auditors
But the capacity building task is huge
because………

6. …..Local Authorities are incredibly complex
and the potential risks and adaptations are too
Regeneration & Economy Planning & Regulatory Leisure & Recreation Education & Libraries Social Services Transport Property
Economic Development Development Control Recreation Facilities Schools organisation Elderly Highways Infrastructure Estates /Land Strategy
Rural Development Plan Building Control Culture Lifelong learning Mental Health Maintenance Asset Management
Infrastructure Design Local Develop Plan Events Outdoor Education Residential Care Engineering Housing units
City Centre Management Minerals Tourism Schools Catering Day Care Traffic Management Industrial units
Local Training & Enterprise Biodiversity Country Parks School Transport Indpendent Living Bridges Commercial units
Business Support Woodland Sports Development Libraries Learning Disability Sewers Farms
Tourism Tree Pres Orders Venues Archives Asylum Parking Day centres
Community Regeneration Coed Cymru Arts & Theatre Registrars Youth Service Hydrological modelling Community Centres
Agriculture & Food Emergency Planning Grounds Maintenance Health Promotion Early Years Travel Plan Leisure Centres
Voluntary Sector Trading Standards Facilities Management Child Protection Reg.Transport Strategy Venues
Towns & Villages Consumer Protection Adoption Public Transport Libraries
Strategic Sites Environmental Health Child Disability School Transport Design & Maintain
EU Structural Funds Food Safety Bereavement Services Community Transport Facilities
Fleet Management One-stop shops
Country Parks
Waste Sites
Cemeteries
Finance Housing Environment Legal, Scrutiny, Democratic Corporate Services Corporate Planning
Risk & Audit Strategy Biodiversity Legal (Prop, Comm, Proc) ICT Infrastructure CEO
Revenue Benefits Shoreline Management Democratic Services Human Resources Local Service Board
Procurement Assisted Living Waste Sites Improvement Training Partnerships
Contracts Maintenance Recycling Scrutiny Health & Safety Improvement
Schools Private Sector Public Protection Electoral Services Communications Emergency planning
Major Projects Public Sector Pollution Control Strategy Media Corporate Plan
Pensions Energy Efficiency Cleaning Services Member Services Customer Contact Risk Management
Council Tax Homelessness Environmental Health Business Contact Voluntary Sector
Treasury Report Travellers Waste Treatment
Major Projects Affordable Countryside
Investment Empty Homes Drainage
Housing Benefit Food Waste

7. …..airtime for Climate Adaptation is limited
as the local government agenda deals with
‘proximate’ issues:
Public sector's age of
austerity could last 20
years
Thehead of theLocal
Government Association
warnsthat economic pressures
mean public services, and
thoseusing them, arelikely to
facetough timesfor thenext
two decades
20 years of austerity
Welfare Reform
Social Services
Housing
Local economic downturn
Transport Infrastructure
Public service review
Budget squeeze

8. A reminder of the business case for
working on climate leadership in local
government?
local government responsible for £8.6
billion (Capital 1.1 Revenue 7.5) spend in
2011 ( of £18 Billion Total)
1 in 8 jobs in Wales is in local
government (150,000)
Delivers services to 3 million people
Helps deliver £3.8 billion EU funding
Infrastructure
Health
Employment
Housing
Landscape
1254 democratically elected members
representing communities which will be
impacted by climate change.

10. Flintshire – Assets & Transport Infrastructure
Process:
LCLIP
Risk Assessment
LSB Workshops: Assets, Transport,
Business, Health (3 years)
Adaptation:
Adaptation highlighted meaningfully in
corporate plan.
Asset and Transport Managers in continuing
working groups.
Interventions identified:
•Monitoring, processes and systems
•Discourse
•Role of Local Resilience Fora
Leadership: Head of Transport & Assets

11. Cardiff – Risk Management & Performance
Process:
LCLIP
Risk Assessment
LSB Workshops: Risk Managers (3
years)
Adaptation:
Climate adaptation on its corporate and
community risk registers which requires
risk reduction actions to be identified by
Services.
Cardiff now has Key Performance
Indicator for climate resilience in their
Corporate Plan. Three year cycle –
Infrastructure – Service Continuity –
Strategy.
Leadership – Head of Performance
Management

12. Torfaen LSB – Public Sector
Climate Adaptation Framework
Process:
LSB Workshops: Awareness: Risk: Systems:
Adaptation Planning (3 years)
Adaptation:
A Public Sector Climate Adaptation Framework
for collaborative working
•Evidence Base
•Business Case
•Engagement
•Decision Making
•Implementation
Leadership – Assistant CEO and LSB
Executive

13. Swansea– Climate Adaptation as part of
Foresighting
Process:
Adaptation explored as part of Economic
Regeneration; Finance; Social Services;
Single Integrated Plan discourse on future
trends.
2040 scenarios at Ward Level
Adaptation:
Informing discourse at local and regional
level
Recommendations on longer term
approach to finance
Externalities to be considered in Single
Integrated Plan
Senior Training and leadership programme
to include 2040 scenarios
Leadership – CEO and Lead Member

14. Caerphilly – Climate Adaptation
& Rural Economy
Process:
•Desk based review of key impacts on
Caerphilly’s rural economy
•Interviews with farmers, landowners,
businesses.
•Recommendations on interventions and
training.
•Autumn ‘workshop’ to disseminate
Adaptation:
Recommendations on capacity building to be
developed:
•Land management
•Crop production
•Livestock management
•Farm risk assessments
Leadership – RDP and SD Team

15. Carmarthenshire – County Wide Risk
Assessment
Process:
Risk seminars to prime LSB partners
Template to engage partners and Council
services to ID Risks
Collation
Regular reports to LSB
Adaptation:
Shared knowledge portal
Priorities – assets, accessibility
Risk registers
Community Profiles
Engagement – councillors and communities
Leadership – CEO, Leader, Chair of LSB

16. Toolkit – transferable and need disseminating
Local Climate Impact Profiles
Risk Assessment Templates
Risk ‘registers’
Corporate Plan Review
Corporate KPI Guidance
Asset Management Guidance
Economic Regeneration Partnership Review
Training Presentations to engage – members,
services, officers and partners
CCETK – finance tool
Green Economy Matrix
2040 Ward Scenarios
Public Sector Climate Adaptation Framework
Single Needs Assessment Review

17. The regional question…..where is the leadership going to come from?
Climate Adaptation has no home regionally despite
regional working in other policy areas.
CAG Consultants (and NSF) explored how best to
approach this in 2012/13.
Engaged in NW and SE Wales.
Time and capacity is limited.
Information sharing is the easy part.
LSB partners (Fire, Police, Health) need regional
approach.
Can LRF have a role here? – Potential 2013/14
project.
Potential for vulnerable land database.
EU funding to build capacity through RDP/SDF?

18. Whole System Climate Adaptation
Strategic Partnership Process Development Governance
Single Integrated
Plan
Local Development
Plan
Economic
Regeneration
Wales Spatial Plan?
Local Food
Strategy?
and others
LSB
Community
Economy
Social
Environmental
Regional
Wales-wide
Trade Unions
Business Planning
Financial Planning
Risk Management
Asset Management
Corporate Planning
Cycle
Insurance
Emergency Planning
Funding
Major Developments
Transport
Infrastructure
Energy
Infrastructure
Community
Infrastructure
Development
process
Asset Management
Executive
Council
Scrutiny
Committees
Internal Audit
Reporting
Future Generations
Committee?
If we were doing adaptation right we would have evidence
of change in each of these columns.

19. We need to communicate
evidence
Develop local narrative of
impact and
consequences
Sell Business Case for
Change
Blinkers or irresponsibility in public
service?
“Are we really spending 2 hours on climate
adaptation – I’ve got work to do…..”
“All of this seems to big…what can we do…….?”
“This should all be dealt with at a UK or WG level –
not us…..”
“We’re making ends meet now every four years…
we can’t think about the future……”
“I don’t care – I’m not going to be around…..”
“My service is too busy thinking about cuts to think
decades ahead…..”
“ I don’t believe in climate change”
“It’s a conspiracy to increase taxes”

20. Good Leadership on Climate Adaptation?
“ which risks are most important to deal with….?”
“why haven’t we been considering this before?”
“ we need to involve…..”
“ this needs to inform everything we are planning”
“ I need to take this to Corporate Management Team…..
“ How might this inform our work on….”
“ Can we explore this in our work with….?”
“ Tell me how to best communicate this….?”
“ Tell me what we can do differently…..”
“ What can I do to progress this…….?”
“ How have you accounted for climate adaptation?

21. Learning from Foresighting work
we do stuff that helps to build resilience but it
is not focused on medium and long term
conditions
Absence of discussion about externalities
over the long term in key strategy
Leaders validating staff to think about the
future is vital – culture is opposite
Capacity and enthusiasm needs ‘freeing up’
– won’t happen by accident
But it is there – staff welcome being asked
about interventions and see relevance of
longer term planning
Cultural shift needed – its OK to think about
the long term

22. We need to build the business case more
effectively to engage leaders…….
CLIMATE RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE
London – energy and transport
New York –
cross sectoral expertise
DEFRA 2011 Guidance

23. Seattle, Washington State
Climate
North
East
North West Visitor Economy
We need to build the business case more
effectively to engage leaders….
CLIMATE AND THE ECONOMY
ICLEI Canada
http://www.icleicanada.org/
resources/item/46-
leadershipandlegacy

24. Where should we build capacity for leadership in local government
on Climate Adaptation?
PolOrganisational arena Political arena
Chief Executives
SOLACE
Corporate Management
Senior Managers
Directors
Officer Groups
Delivery Partnerships
Finance
Legal
Regional Groups
Engagement with WG
Managers
EU funding
Cabinet
Executive
Planning Committee
Scrutiny:
•Economic
•Finance
•Environmental
•Social
Finance Committee
Regional Groups
Local Service Board
Engagement with WG
Experience so far has developed tools, and narrative to engage
leaders…. this needs to continue

25. Our climate is changing. And while the increase
in extreme weather experienced in New York
City and around the world might not be the result
of it, the risk that it may be- given the
devastation it is wreaking – should be enough to
compel all elected leaders to take immediate
action.
Former Republican, NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s
statement in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
We can choose to believe
that Superstorm Sandy, and
the most severe drought in
decades, and the worst
wildfires we have ever seen
were all just freak
coincidence. Or we can
choose to believe in the
overwhelming judgement of
science – and act before it is
too late – President Barack
Obama 17th
February 2013
We need leaders in
Wales who can make the
link and speak out on
climate adaptation…

26. NETHERWOOD
SUSTAINABLE FUTURES
Sustainable Development &
Climate Change Consultancy
n
Dr. Alan Netherwood
Netherwood Sustainable Futures
Honorary Research Fellow
School of Planning & Geography
alan.netherwood@gmail.com
Thankyou for listening
Diolch yn fawr iawn.
Any questions?