Step 4: What actions should you take?
This step will help you identify options for action, bearing in mind that often decisions have to be made with limited information.
The key is to weigh the likelihood, effects, costs and benefits of acting.
4.1. What are your adaptation options?
Task 4.1: Compile a full list of possible ways you could adapt to the climate change risks you identified in Step 3. Try working with others in your area or industry to identify as many options as possible. Record these in Table 4.1.
There are two main ways to cope with climate change: you can react to events as they happen or plan ahead.
There are many ways you can incorporate climate change adaptation into your business or organisation's planning and practices, such as:
- creating contingency plans for storms, droughts, floods etc.
- incorporating actions into your financial and growth plans
- undertaking training for yourself or your employees
- exploiting new opportunities
- diversifying your business to offset potential losses through spreading the risk
- avoiding or reducing exposure to climate risks
- accepting the impacts and planning ahead
It is likely that you will use a range of measures to manage climate risks. Step 1 of this Toolbox can help you identify options, for instance research or training, as well as actions, such as changing land-use practices.
4.2. When do you need to take action?
Task 4.2: Write down when you need to act (or not act) and prioritise your actions. Continue to use Table 4.1 for your responses.
Decide when it is best to take action to reduce your risk. Consider:
- any current weather or climate related issues you are facing
- how soon (or how likely) you expect climate risks to exceed any critical thresholds
- how long it will take to plan and implement solutions – consider pathways for adapting over time
- reducing risk by taking climate change into account when carrying out regular maintenance (e.g. fixing leaky taps to reduce water waste)
- incorporating climate considerations into long lived decisions, such as business remodelling
- your projected financial position and when it might be best to invest in adaptation actions.
4.3. How do you understand the cost of adapting?
Task 4.3: Compare the costs of acting with the impacts you avoid (or the income you might realise) to estimate the benefits of acting. Think about the level of adaptation you want, as well as the potential for under- or over-adapting. Continue to use Table 4.1 for your responses.
Compare the benefits of adaptation (including climate related costs adaptation will enable you to avoid) with the costs of each option to choose the highest net benefit. Keep in mind any information gaps or uncertainties you noted in earlier steps. For a rough order of costs, look at your financial accounts over the past few years to see how weather events and/or wet/dry or warm/cool years have affected your business or organisation.
4.4. How do you prioritise your actions?
Task 4.4: Prioritise your actions, using the action priority matrix below and Table 4.1 for your responses.
Consider which of your adaptation options are a priority for you currently based on weighing the level of risk, as well as the cost of acting vs. the avoided impacts.
It is best to prioritise actions that are high risk and have significant avoided impacts, while also having an affordable cost of acting. Consider your capacity to implement the actions.
Action priority matrix
An action priority matrix is a simple diagram to help you choose the activities you should prioritize and the ones you should avoid, if you want to make the most of your time and opportunities. Use the matrix to prioritise your climate adaptation activities. To use the matrix, you score tasks based firstly on their impact and secondly on the effort needed to complete them.
- Quick wins (high impact, low effort): are the most attractive projects, because they give you a good return for relatively little effort. Focus on these as much as you can (e.g. minimising water usage by fixing leaky taps and pipes).
- Major projects (high impact, high effort): these give you good returns, but they are time-consuming. This means that one major project can "crowd out" many quick wins (e.g. building a major permanent stop bank).
- Fill ins (low impact, low effort): Don't worry too much about doing these activities – if you have spare time, do them, but drop them or delegate them if something better comes along (e.g. building a small temporary stop bank).
- Thankless tasks (low impact, high effort): Try to avoid these activities. Not only do they give little return, they also soak up time that you should be using on quick wins (e.g. short-term replacement/repair of infrastructure in flood prone locations).
Adaptive management
Adaptive management options may not fit neatly into the categories above but are worth considering. These involve taking small steps over time, responding to new information and adjusting management over time, rather than acting in one step. Monitoring is an important part of these approaches and they are useful for handling uncertainty, as management is adjusted over time. This is the approach advocated in the MfE (2017) guidance.
4.5. Develop an implementation plan.
Task 4.5: Use your responses from Table 4.1 and the rest of the toolkit to develop your climate change adaptation implementation plan for your priority actions. A template for an implementation plan is provided in the Taskpad (Table 4.5).
Having identified key climate risks and ways to make your business or organisation resilient to climate change, you now have to decide on the best way forward.
Your actions will be influenced by internal drivers like how you run your business/organisation and outside influences such as regulations, industry targets, resource consents or agreements with neighbours.
Key things to think about when completing your implementation plan are:
- your risk and the costs of acting and not acting
- how you can incorporate your actions into everyday activities
- how preferred actions could or should be implemented
- what resources (staff, facilities, capital) are required to take action
- what support is required, including any support from other land managers, neighbours, community, government or other organisations
- additional climate information required
- when, and over how long, actions should be implemented
- potential barriers to adaptation and how they could be overcome
- monitoring your progress and knowing when an action is successful
You can integrate adaptation options into your existing plans and processes or develop an implementation plan using the template provided in the Taskpad. Having the information in one place means that there is a record for new staff, managers or future partners and owners. A good record will also allow you to easily review your information and conclusions and modify actions where appropriate (Step 5).
Include ways to integrate climate adaptation into your business-as-usual activities now or over the next 12 months (e.g. business/organisation planning, scheduling, maintenance, financial plans, changing management practices, new buildings, new products, training, disaster recovery or any other management plans).