IEMA Paper: Developing Skills for Adaptation - July 2024

IEMA's Senior Policy and Engagement Lead on Climate Change and Energy, Chloë Fiddy discusses the latest IEMA paper: 'Developing Skills for Adaptation'.

Climate change is a reality affecting all nations, with emissions not being reduced swiftly enough to halt its progression. Adapting to climate change is essential, given its inevitable impact due to historical emissions, even if we are suddenly able to decarbonise at pace. The risks associated with climate change include extreme weather events, food insecurity, the mass displacement of peoples, and new diseases for which we are ill-prepared.

As a result, governments and regulators worldwide are urging organisations to report their climate risk exposure and adaptation measures. This increased scrutiny will drive adaptation efforts, making climate preparedness a competitive advantage now and a necessity in the future.

This paper targets various groups interested in green skills development, from educational curriculum planners to employers. It looks at the necessary actions, challenges, and skills for building adaptive capacity and reducing vulnerability to climate change.

Key project action stages include:

• Understanding risk and opportunity

• Solving problems

• Delivering adaptation plans

• Project governance

• Effective communication

In translating these change management skills into adaptation projects, it becomes clear that some of these skills will be technical and niche; for instance, new insights will be needed in the fields of engineering and systems and risk assessment. Others will be more a question of upskilling and reskilling existing teams and roles, as working towards adaptive capacity becomes a mainstream element of all jobs.

Almost all roles will require a combination of new/specialist and existing skills, but the type and amount of training needed will be on a sliding scale, depending on where the action sits in the process.

Understanding Risk and Opportunity: Requires critical thinking, avoiding biases, and ensuring comprehensive data collection and analysis. Challenges include lack of data, balancing model use with manual assessments, and defining suitable boundaries for risk assessment.

Solving Problems: Involves evaluating and prioritising adaptation options, effective project planning, and including the integration of potential co-benefits. Challenges include getting timeframes right, finding the financing, systems thinking, and prioritisation.

Delivering Adaptation Plans: Requires engagement with stakeholders, innovative finance planning, and effective project management. Challenges include finding sustainable finance, sustaining momentum in groundbreaking projects, and navigating regulatory regimes.

Project Governance: Involves vision, leadership, and understanding the context and policies within which a project operates. Challenges include communicating the need and urgency of adaptation, ensuring comprehensive understanding across departments, and developing cooperative models.

Project Monitoring and Evaluation: Ensures projects are carried out as planned and evaluates their success. Challenges include defining success, auditing agile projects, long-term planning, and establishing cause and effect linkages.

Last but by no means least, effective communication is essential throughout the adaptation process. It involves engaging stakeholders, ensuring inclusive input, articulating changes, and communicating monitoring and evaluation results. Challenges include overcoming resistance to change, political influences, and ensuring message clarity for diverse audiences.

IEMA members can download their copy of Developing Skills for Adaptation here

Non-IEMA members can purchase the document from our online shop (under 'Sustainability in Practice Guides')