Climate Adaptation Plan

Climate Change is called many things - 'the greatest threat we have faced in thousands of years', a 'manmade disaster on a global scale', an 'existential threat to the financial system', the 'greatest threat to human rights in the 21st century'.

This global threat has and will continue to have a local impact. All of us, in every aspect of our lives, have a role to play in minimising our impact on the environment and on climate change.

The last few years have shown just how important our natural environment is to us. It's the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink. Managed well it can greatly improve our quality of life. By protecting nature and restoring our ecosystems we can reduce our vulnerabilities and improve our resilience to the effects of climate change.

In 2019, Ards and North Down Borough Council declared a Climate Emergency and is committed to making a positive contribution to the fight against climate change. Our Corporate Plan, Towards a Sustainable Borough 2024-2028, has made transitioning to net zero one of our key priorities.

Recent years have seen an increase in the frequency of more erratic weather events. Both locally and regionally high temperature records are being broken, stronger winds are being recorded, storm events are having a greater impact on all of us and with 115 miles of coastline, we are more exposed than most to rising sea levels.

These events are only going to become more frequent. Through our carbon reduction plans, we can try and mitigate these impacts and prevent even higher temperatures and more challenging climatic conditions, but we also need to plan ahead and adapt to the consequences that we cannot prevent.

Through the development of this Climate Adaptation Plan, we have, across all services, identified our risks and vulnerabilities and have begun to address them. Whether this is altering our mowing practices, planting appropriately, protecting our staff, 'climate proofing' our developments, business continuity planning or retrofitting our buildings, consideration of climate change has been considered and accounted for across the Council.

This is not a 'one-off', we will continue to review and address our actions as scenarios change and more data becomes available.

The introduction of the Climate Change Act NI in June 2022 has reinforced the need to change. We must address both our impact on and protection of our environment. By doing so we will be better prepared for, and resilient to, the impacts of Climate Change.

View the Climate Adaptation Plan pdf (PDF, 1 MB) (opens new window)