With the information gathered from Step 1, Step 2 and Workshop 1, you
can now begin to build your climate adaptation plan. This begins with
the creation of a risk register. The Risk Register is the basis upon which
you will build much of your action planning, decision-making and
monitoring with regard to the climate risks facing your organisation.
Ultimately, defining and beginning to address these risks is the core
driver for creating your adaptation plan.
The risk register describes what the main climate risks are for your
organisation. It is also an important step in building a cohesive picture of
your future and how your current vulnerabilities may be worsened over
time.
There are two steps to developing the risk register:
1. Developing your risk statements based on the workshop information,
2. Using these to complete the risk register template.
For the purposes of this guidance, the scoring methodology for scoring
risk will be likelihood x impact. However, if the methodology used in your
organisation is dierent, you may choose to use it instead.
What is a climate risk register?
It is a risk management tool, which can be used to improve the
resilience of an organisation by making a database of its climate-
related risks. These risks provide the basis upon which you can identify
actions required to adapt operational capability, thereby making your
organisation more resilient. This should identify:
• Existing vulnerabilities to weather related hazards, and the degree
to which they are a threat
• The impact of current policies in addressing these risks
How Do You
Develop a Climate
Risk Register?
1
• How risks are likely to change over time, the timescale for action,
and what actions need to be taken to address each risk.
The idea is to provide a sense of direction and purpose for your
climate planning. You need priorities for action, and to know where
you are most in need of a response. Developing a plan for your
limited resources based on an agreed series of issues can be very
powerful, and don’t forget, this is something you will come back to
and rene over time.
2
Figure 1: DCSDC Risk Register
3
How do you develop a climate risk register?
Step 1: Risk Statements
Using the various pieces of information about events, impacts and
consequences gathered from Workshop 1, you now group what you
have learned into a series of risk statements. This means that you look
at each event listed as part of Workshop 1 and create a short
statement which encompasses the risk for council (see the box
below). These risk statements are then what is scored against in the
risk register. Taken together, these risk statements tell the story of how
your organisation is at risk from climate change.
The idea behind these risk statements, as opposed to just listing
flooding, or heatwaves in isolation, is that climatic drivers are given
context in terms of the impacts and consequences for the
organisation/area. This idea of addressing climate change in relation to
vulnerability is crucial to set the precedent moving forward, for this plan
and new iterations.
Some of these will read back directly to the information gathered
during Workshop 1, others may have some repetition and therefore be
amalgamated from several dierent events. You want to capture all
the information, but make your risk register as user-friendly and
approachable as possible.
Remember to look at the Derry City and Strabane District Council Risk
Register to get a sense of what it looks like. Although there are some
changes to the statements and template, it will give you an idea of
what you’re working towards.
Risk Statements in 3 Steps
1. Each statement will be grouped under one of four headings
according to its relevant climate hazard from Workshop 1:
• Flooding
• Heatwaves/Increased temperatures and Low Rainfall
• Storms
• Intense Cold
Note: Gradual changes like sea-level rise and increased growing
season can be integrated into Flooding and Heatwaves/Increased
temperatures respectively.
2. A risk statement consists of three component parts:
Hazard (1), Impact (2) and Consequence (3)
So from the information gathered on a heat event listed in Workshop 1,
you may condense the information down to look like the following:
Increased frequency and intensity of heat (1) leading to
increased staff discomfort (2) resulting in increased mechanical
cooling costs (3) for the authority.
3. You must give each risk a risk code e.g. for a ooding risk, F1
Figure 2: Explanation of How to Develop a Risk Statement: Amended from Climate Ireland
1
4
Risk Headings
Once you have written your risk statements for each of the climate hazards,
you may find it useful to develop headings which provide a summary of the
impacts for each hazard. See the DCSDC example below:
DCSDC also included the following statement in the Corporate Risk
Register; a move attributed a great deal of success by Programme
Manager Cathy Burns:
(CRR) Council fails to take eective action to address the causes and
impacts of Climate Change, and respond to the Climate Emergency
Declaration.
Step 2: Complete the Risk Register
Decide how to prioritise risks
Now that your draft risk statements are developed, it is time to complete
the template. This will be your first draft of the risk register which you can
then bring back to the group for discussion in Workshop 2. Remember, it
doesn’t have to be perfect at this stage. There will be 2 more workshops to
run it by your working group.
As we discussed at the beginning, you may find it most useful to follow the
risk framework already used in your organisation in order to integrate
climate planning as much as possible. In NI this tends to be a likelihood x
impact system and this is therefore the method we will use here.
Completing the NI Adapts Risk Register
The NI Adapts Risk Register suggests you make 8 assessments for each risk
statement (continue reading for more information on each point):
1. State the relevant internal departments
2. Assess the level of risk posed (inherent risk)
3. State any relevant ongoing policy or procedures in your organisation
4. Assess to what extent that ongoing work reduces the risk score(residual
risk)
5. Assess the timescale in which this action needs addressed
6. Assess the future change in the level of the risk (increase, no change,
decrease)
7. State any relevant external organisations important to addressing the
risk
8. Link to Action Plan.
DCSDC Key Risk Headings
1. (IT)Risk to health, well-being, productivity, assets and eco systems from
increased temperatures
2. (IPF) Risk to Council personnel, communities, infrastructure, eco
systems and Council assets, services and operations from increased
precipitation and flooding(sea-level rise included here)
3. (IS) Risk of storm damage to infrastructure and Council assets, services
and operations and risk to Council personnel
4. (IC) Risk of intense cold periods aecting infrastructure, communities
and Council assets, services and operations.
Figure 3: Derry City and Strabane District Council Risk Headings
5
NI Adapts Risk Register
Note: Please download the link to the Risk Register Template from the
NI Adapts Website before reading this section so you can follow along
with how the information looks in practice.
For each risk statement, complete the following information in the
columns listed:
1. Relevant Internal Departments
Simply list the departments for which the risk falls within their remit. This
will be important in agreeing the action plan.
Note: Don’t forget departments such as Marketing or Human
Resources, for example. Look at the DCSDC risk register to see who they
included.
2. Inherent Risk
The inherent risk score will tell you how high a priority each risk
statement is for your organisation:
Impact x Likelihood = Risk Score
The Impact (the level of damage caused by a climatic event or
trend) ranges from very low to high.
The Likelihood is the probability of how often these risks will occur
moving forward, and these range from very low to high.
You should have gathered feedback in Workshop 1 as to whether
colleagues considered the dierent events as low/medium/high risk.
You can use this and the UK climate projections as a guide.
Note: It might be good practice to score uncertainties high rather than
low, using the precautionary approach.
Your organisation will likely already have a Risk Matrix like the following,
which you should use in order to integrate easily with other policies and
plans:
Figure 4: Example DCSDC Risk Scoring Matrix
2
6
3. Current Policy and Procedures
Use the information captured in Workshop 1, as well as during your
scoping exercise in Step 1, to detail current policies or procedures in
your organisation which reduce the likelihood and/or impact of each
risk e.g. emergency plans, green infrastructure strategy, flexible
working.
4. Residual Risk
Update likelihood and impact scores from Inherent Risk to account for
any reduction due to current policies and procedures listed in point 3.
This will give you a residual risk score which can be used over time to
track the success of your interventions.
Note: policies and procedures may be in place, but truly consider the
extent of their real-world impact when scoring residual risk, otherwise
aws may not be improved.
5. Short, Medium, or Long-Term Risk?
Consider the timescale in which this risk needs to be addressed in your
action plan. Note: For some risks it could be all of them:
• Short (< 5 yr),
• Medium (5-10 yr)
• Long (> 10yr)
6. Projected Change in Risk Level (to 2050)
Based on the information gathered for Exercise 1b in Workshop 1, as
well as the UK climate projections, assess the future change in the level
of the risk to 2050:
• Increase
• Decrease
• No Change
For example:
• If it is a heat-related risk, then since the projections show an
increase in hot days by 2050, the risk would be deemed to
‘increase’.
• Conversely, cold events will still occur, but will become less
frequent, so the risk could be deemed to ‘decrease’. Others may
show no change.
Note: Consider this section not only based on the climate trends, but
also on the vulnerabilities arising from the geography of further planned
development, or an aging population. Even if there is uncertainty
around a certain climate impact itself, you might be able to say that
an older population will mean a higher number of more vulnerable
people regardless.
7. Relevant External Organisations
List any external organisations for which the risk falls within their remit;
government departments, NGOs, community groups etc.
This will also form part of the action plan.
7
8. Link to Action Plan
This final section should be completed after you have developed a
draft action plan. By completing this section, you are cross-referencing
your actions with the risks. This is how to make make sure that all of your
priority risks are being addressed by your proposed actions.
You can then carry out a final scoring exercise to determine how you
think the actions in your adaptation plan will change the risk score.
Now you have developed your risk statements and filled in the
template, the first draft of your risk register is complete. Again, don’t
worry about perfection at this stage; the working group will scrutinise
the risk register in Workshops 2 and 3, alongside the two other drafts
you need to complete:
• Draft vision/objectives
• Draft action plan.
References
¹Excerpt adapted from https://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/climate-action/publications/Documents/14/
LA%20Adaptation%20Guidelines.pdf
²Derry City and Strabane District Council Cimate Change Adaptation Plan (2020) - http://meetings.
derrycityandstrabanedistrict.com/documents/s31062/Appendix%201%20DCSDC_Climate%20Change%20
Adaptation%20Plan%202020-2025%20Final%20Draft.pdf
