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First, check the main guidance on how to develop a management system under an environmental permit.

This guidance explains how to integrate climate change adaptation into your management system. You will need to consider:

• the risks to your business from climate change
• the risks your business creates due to climate change
• how to embed controls

The detail in your risk assessment and plan of action should reflect the risk that climate change creates for your operation.

Why you need to plan for climate change impacts

Climate change means that extreme weather incidents are becoming more common and more severe.

Climate projections show that over the coming decades we will face an increased risk of climate change impacts, including:

• extreme rainfall, leading to more frequent and severe floods
• heat waves
• drought
• rise in sea levels and tidal surges
• storms
• wildfires

All of these could have an impact on businesses directly, in your supply chains and for your consumers and markets. Planning for this will help you to:

• remain in compliance with your environmental permit, other obligations and regulations
• minimise your impact on the environment during an extreme weather event and the events impact on your operations, either through accidental release or abnormal operation
• improve your resilience and business continuity by avoiding unplanned start-ups, shutdowns and other business interruptions

The ISO 14090:2019 standard on adaptation planning can also help you consider climate change when you develop a management system.

You can complete the process in 6 stages.

1. Preparation

Review what processes you already have in place to:

• manage climate related risks
• build understanding and get agreement at a senior level for the need for action
• assemble the right team to develop a plan of action
• communicate to others in the business what you are doing and why to help get support for developing a plan of action across the whole business

Your preparation work should be based on how complex your operation is.

2. Find potential impacts

Site-based impacts

Consider how vulnerable your site is to current and future climates. You should assess for a 4C rise by 2100 and plan for a 2C rise by 2050.

Find any site-specific issues. For example:

• access issues due to flooding or sea-level rise
• distance from areas where wildfires could break out
• risks from failure of essential site services (water, electrical supply, drainage systems)

Find out if there are significant receptors (people, animals, property and anything else that could be affected by a hazard) nearby. Examples are:

• Sites of Special Scientific Interest
• watercourses
• local nature reserves
• endangered species

Consider if their vulnerability to emissions or incidents increases with changing weather patterns. Consider if this creates a risk for your permit compliance.

You can get basic climate change impact data from the Environment Agencys climate impacts tool. You can get more detailed analysis of the risks from the Environment Agencys third climate change adaptation report.

Consider relevant impacts on any other sites your company owns or operates.

Find out if lessons learned from international operations, which may face different or more extreme weather, can be transferred to your site.

Consider how long are you planning for your site to be operational. The severity of climate change impacts could increase with time.

Example: increasing summer temperatures

With warmer summer air temperatures at a site, you may see an operational impact of needing more water. This may lead to an environmental impact of increased water abstraction, above your abstraction licence or permit limit.

Example: reducing summer rainfall

You may find a risk to operations from reduced summer rainfall which leads to lower river flows. This may not affect your operation directly, but the reduced capacity for the water environment to deal with any discharge may lead to environmental harm at a significant receptor. Or there may be a lack of water for dust suppression.

Example: extreme high daily temperatures

Very high summer temperatures may happen more often. The impacts of this are varied but could include:

• failure of control and monitoring systems due to heat
• failing infrastructure both on and off site, making logistics challenging
• failure of IT systems both on and off site due to data centres failing, or being closed down to protect the servers

Example: intense rainfall or snow

You may experience intense rainfall, especially during the winter months. The impacts are varied but can include:

• localised flooding, landslides and subsidence that can affect infrastructure, drainage and containment systems
• loss of buoyancy on floating roof tanks due to insufficient drainage capacity, leading to unplanned releases
• failure of warehouse roofing due to excessive snow build up, causing damage to stored chemicals and equipment
• overloading on protective inlet filters, causing equipment damage and failure

Sector-based impacts

Find climate hazards relevant to your sector or business activity. Consider how these climate hazards could affect your activities (known as a risk pathway) during normal and abnormal operations. Note any environmental impacts that could result.

The industry sector examples for your risk assessment give predicted climate impacts for 2050 based on UK climate projections (UKCP18). There are different examples for each sector but the impacts are often common and give common issues and potential mitigations as a starting point.

3. Complete your risk assessment

You may have already completed a risk assessment if you recently applied for a new bespoke environmental permit. If not, you will need to check if you need to manage each risk before you produce an adaptation plan.

Complete a standard risk assessment

Complete your risk assessment based on:

• where your site is located make sure you consider all known or reasonably foreseeable site-specific climate impacts, such as flooding if youre in or near a flood plain
• consideration of current threats, as well as those predicted for a 2C rise by 2050 and a 4C rise by 2100
• your industry sector consider using the industry sector examples for your risk assessment and information from any relevant trade bodies
• any process currently in place for your company to help you assess, manage, and report climate and sustainability risks

If your operation is at high risk: complete a more in-depth risk assessment

After you complete the standard risk assessment it may be clear that your operation is at a higher risk from climate change. If so, you should:

• complete a more in-depth risk assessment based on UKCP
• provide a greater level of detail for the timescales of more likely impacts

The Met Office has published guidance on how to use the UKCP18 land projections to help you choose the set of projections that meet your needs. You may need specialist advice to quantify some climate risks.

To develop a more detailed assessment you can follow:

• ISO 14090:2019 on adaptation
• ISO 14091:2021 on vulnerability, impacts
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