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ANNEX B: CURRENT ACTIVITIES CONTRIBUTING TO CLIMATE ADAPTATION IN SCOTLAND

B.1 Scotland is already experiencing the impacts of a changing climate. Many stakeholders are already contributing towards safeguarding our communities and minimising disruption to Scotland's services and infrastructure. Annex B provides information on current climate adaptation challenges faced by selected Scottish organisations as well as current regulations, policies, research and activity being conducted which support climate adaptation in Scotland. Annex B has been provided for use as a tool in thinking around the issues of climate adaptation in formulating your response to this consultation. The list is illustrative and is in no way exhaustive. Due to the cross-cutting nature of climate adaptation, many of the activities listed may be equally relevant under other sector headings.

B.2 A survey the Scottish Government conducted in early 2008 on organisational capacity to plan for and manage to the impacts of climate change was the primary source to inform the critical challenges for sectors in adapting to the impacts of climate change as well as suggested methods of climate adaptation, including: a) reduce and manage uncertainty, b) build awareness in key stakeholders and c) educate the public about risks.

B.3 The purpose of this survey was to help identify how organisations plan for and manage the risks associated with climate change impacts; what tools they use; what scenarios they plan for; and the extent to which existing weather impacts affects their operations. The survey focussed on understanding the capacity of the organisation to manage these climate risks; and any barriers which inhibit the development of effective risk management strategies.

B.4 The survey was aimed primarily at individuals with operational responsibility of managing climate impacts (extreme weather events) within their organisation. We undertook a number of face-to-face interviews with individuals from key stakeholders, including Transport Scotland; Scottish Water; SNH; SEPA and across Scottish Government policy areas. We also had 42 responses to the online version of the survey, including: 22 individuals from 20 local authorities; 6 individuals from central government, government agencies or non-departmental public bodies; 3 individuals from utility service providers; and a range of other organisations such as business support and consultancy organisations. We would like to thank SCCIP and CBI Scotland who supported the survey through use of their mailing lists.

B.5 For the purposes of this Annex, we are using the following sectors to explore issues of climate adaptation:

• Energy supply infrastructure
• Transport infrastructure
• Water systems and sewerage
• Land and property ownership
• Natural environment management
• Natural resource management: forestry, fishing and agriculture
• Health and wellbeing

Energy supply infrastructure

Critical challenges

• Reliance on major capital, long life assets
• Assets in geographically inaccessible locations and often vulnerable to flooding and storm damage
• High levels of service provision required: problem of recovering service levels during adverse events
• Substantial changes occurring in industry from mitigation agenda (e.g. more embedded generation)
• Favourable precipitation patterns are key to maximising the contribution from hydro
• Turning land over to fuel production (from forestry and energy crops) could impact on local drainage and hydrology

Adaptation responses

Regulations, policies, research and activities contributing to climate adaptation

B.1 Regulations to protect local ecosystems - and environmental resilience to climate change - from additional stresses of energy production.

• Requirement for developers of power stations with a potential generating capacity in excess of 50 MW (or 1 MW for hydro generation) to obtain consent from Scottish Ministers.
• Controlled Activities Regulations (Scotland) 2004 requires appropriate consideration of schemes proportionate to the impact on the water environment, recognising the need to reconcile measures to improve the water environment with the importance of renewable energy generation in combating climate change.

B.2 Thermal guidance

• The Scottish Government will review thermal consenting conditions in late 2008 to account for CCS and heat readiness.

B.3 Protection of peat on windfarms

• The Scottish Government is currently developing further measures to protect against peat loss on windfarms, strengthening the current provisions already in place to protect against peat slide.
  

Transport infrastructure

Critical challenges

Maintenance of road/rail design built to design standards based on historical records

• Design life of road materials
• Society's preparedness to accept transport disruption during adverse weather events
• Effective communication between different agencies during adverse weather events - interacting with Scottish Water/Power companies/Resilience Units and continuing to develop effective partnerships

Adaptation responses

Regulations, policies, research and activities contributing to climate adaptation

B.4 Work agenda developed by Transport Scotland for a range of design, operational, research and policy issues for development.

• Many of these issues revolve around the development of "soft" management measures to respond to climate change (such as traffic management options, improved maintenance regimes and responsive public/road-user information systems)
• These measures focus on changing how the Scottish transport networks operate, rather than the physical aspects of the networks themselves

B.5 Scottish Road Network Climate Change Study

• Transport Scotland analysed the potential future trends in climate change in Scotland and the implications for operation and management of the road networks

B.6 Protection of peat on windfarms

• The Scottish Government is currently developing further measures to protect against peat loss on windfarms, strengthening the current provisions already in place to protect against peat slide

Water Systems and Sewerage

Critical challenges

Long life assets

• Assets designed for specific climate risks, based on historical climate - such as current sewerage systems which may not be able to cope with sudden and intense storm events
• The high expense of retrofitting assets
• High levels of service provision: water security
• Customer understanding of risk
• Impact of climate change on meeting existing regulatory requirements such as water quality

Adaptation responses

Regulations, policies, research and activities contributing to climate adaptation

B.7 Sustainable flood management

• Under the Water Environment and Water Services (S) Act 2003, Scottish Ministers, SEPA and responsible authorities (including local authorities) have a duty to promote sustainable flood management. Bodies are also required to adopt an integrated approach and work together when carrying out their functions in relation to flood management. This recognises the importance of bodies cooperating with each other at a higher catchment level to address flood risk.
• Civil Contingencies Act also makes provision for dealing with extreme weather conditions, including flooding.
• The Government has consulted on proposals designed to establish a framework within which sustainable flood risk management in Scotland will operate more effectively than at present. This will allow it to account for the impacts of a changing climate. The responses from this consultation will inform new flooding legislation to be introduced this year. For further information, see The Future of Flood Risk Management in Scotland: A consultation Document http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/02/13095729/0

B.8 Water availability

• The EU is currently examining how it can better integrate climate change into its Water Framework Directive ( WFD). This will be important as current requirements under the WFD do not have the flexibility to respond to the impacts of climate change.
• The implementation of the WFD provides an opportunity to adapt to the impact of climate change. Through its integrated management of water resources and catchment based management planning, it provides a potential framework to build on.

B.9 Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems

• Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems are enshrined in the Water Environment & Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 to minimise excess flow into systems and reduce flood management with the benefits of reducing diffuse pollution and supporting recharge of water systems locally.

B.10SEPA flood awareness campaigns

• The Scottish Government funds SEPA to provide flood awareness campaigns.
• SEPA's annual flood awareness campaign takes place between October and March. The campaign targets communities at risk from flooding by raising awareness of the flood risk and encouraging people to take action to prepare for flooding. The campaign consists of a variety of different initiatives including, a mobile exhibition trailer manned by local SEPA hydrologists, talks to community groups, school theatre tour, community based advertising, media coverage and leaflet distribution through community outlets.

B.11 Water resource sharing under drought conditions

• SEPA currently considering management agreements amongst eg farmers to share water resources in times of drought.
• The Scottish Government is considering how best to support movements to abstract and store water during winter flows rather during summer when supplies are less available.

B.12 Scottish Water investment programme to address more severe water conditions

• Scottish Water is undertaking huge investment to upgrade systems to cope with current storm and drought events and economic growth and more severe conditions will continue to be a major driver of expenditure in the future.

B.13SEPA national flood warning dissemination system

• The Scottish Government is funding SEPA to put in place a nation flood warning dissemination system to allow flood warnings to be distributed to people at risk of flooding.
  

Land and property owners

Critical challenges

• Quality and maintenance of buildings - adapting premises to cope with more intense rainfall events, increased algal and fungal growth etc.
• Land use planning - working proactively with regulators and addressing challenges to drainage and sewerage systems
• Land use planning system and public bodies' roles in managing flood risk while allowing sustainable economic development
• Protection of vulnerable historic sites and buildings from extreme weather events
• Management of public estates

Adaptation responses

Regulations, policies, research and activities contributing to climate adaptation

B.14 Climate change impacts on private sector housing

• There is potential for the new framework of local authority powers to support private owners in the repair and maintenance of their homes under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 to make a difference in the area of adaptation to the impact of climatic change. Depending on local needs and priorities, advice provided under the Scheme of Assistance being developed under the Act could be used to assist in encouraging owners to recognise and respond to the risks posed by climate change. Provision of information, advice and assistance and, if necessary, taking of enforcement action to ensure that houses designed for past conditions can cope with the changed conditions that are expected, for example, security of roofing elements in high winds, could all play a part.

B.15 Scottish Planning Policy

• Scottish Planning Policy 7 - Planning and Flooding explains how climate change has been factored into setting planning policy for flood risk. See:
  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/47210/0026394.pdf
• Planning Advice Note 69 has background including an annex on climate change research. See
  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/08/19805/41594

B.16 Climate change impacts on the historic environment

• Historic Scotland is currently involved in specific research into climate change impacts on the historic environment which will provide outputs which will be fed into future strategy and policy. Specific research includes:
• Examination of the effect of climate change on buildings previously damaged by stone-cleaning.
• The impact of changed moisture levels in traditional masonry, a key vulnerability for traditional buildings, though understanding the wetting and drying cycles and changed patterns of biological growth.
• Improved understanding of the thermal performance of traditional buildings, their benefits and proposals for sustainable ways of addressing their shortcomings. Thermal testing across Scotland since October 2007 has provided a range of U values for different traditional wall types. Alongside this, thermal testing of timber windows will provide results for baseline and allow better assessment of insulation requirements during upgrade and refurbishment. This data will be the first set of such measurements for Scottish building types. This project will also consider other aspects of the building envelope such as different roof types and floors.
• Research into the whole life costing of traditional building components, and their modern equivalents, to allow a more informed judgement to be made when seeking energy reduction options. Such considerations should be mindful of the fact that many energy saving materials and products are themselves high in embodied energy, and must also include the disposal costs and effects of the replaced element. In partnership with The Carbon Centre at Dumfries, a 12 month research project was initiated in Jan 2008 to look closely at traditional elements and these considerations. Although many products come with environmental information, it is often in isolation and no figures are available for Scottish components such as a sash and case window or a panelled door.
• Communication of key climate change issues related to the historic environment to public, buildings professionals and practitioners, schools, conservation bodies.
• Increased rainfall and more extreme wetting and drying cycles are anticipated to result in an Increased requirement for maintenance and a skills shortage. Historic Scotland is developing a qualifications package to address skills shortages in conjunction with Construction Skills and SQA.

B.17 Statutory Guidance on Planning And Sustainable Development

• In March 2007 the Scottish Government published a consultation paper on Statutory Guidance on Planning And Sustainable Development. It contained a page and a half on the implications of climate change for planning. See: http://openscotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/03/28104755/3

B.18 Business risks

• Scottish and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research, Business Risks of Climate Change to Public Sector Organisations in Scotland, 2005.

Natural environment management

Critical challenges

• The need to accommodate changes in species distribution and habitat range, including coastal habitat loss due to sea level rise and increased severity of storms
• Increased impact from pests and disease affecting species, including commercial species such as trees and agricultural crops, as well as livestock
• Increased demand for flexibility in resource management
• Availability of water and an increasing tension between the provision of safe drinking water, leisure, agriculture and the natural environment
• The direct impacts of changes in ocean climate to marine biodiversity (changes in geographical distribution and abundance), as well as the knock-on effects on the marine ecosystem through the food chain

Adaptation responses

Regulations, policies, research and activities contributing to climate adaptation

B.19 Regulations for natural environment management

• National Planning Framework 2
• Land Reforms (2003)
• National Parks (2000)
• Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 - Biodiversity Duty
• EU Habitats Directive
• EU Birds Directive
• Scottish Forest Strategy
• Nature Conservation (2004)

B.20 Scottish Marine Bill

• The Scottish Government will bring forward, later this year, proposals for a Scottish Marine Bill. The Bill will create new provisions for nature conservation within Scottish seas. In bringing forward these provisions, the Scottish Government recognises the challenges posed by climate change.

B.21UK Biodiversity Partnership

• Scotland, as a member of the UK Biodiversity Partnership, is working with other devolved administrations to implement international agreements to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010.
• Conserving Biodiversity in a Changing Climate: guidance on building capacity to adapt was published in May 2007 on behalf of the UK Biodiversity Partnership. Scotland, along with other devolved administrations, participated in the production of this guidance.

B.22 Scottish Natural Heritage Corporate Strategy 2008-13

• The draft strategy includes Responding to Climate Change as one of its five strategic priorities. This will be supported by an SNH Climate Change Action Plan, currently being developed.

B.23 Habitat networks

• The National Planning Framework 2 consultation outlines the potential for the creation of a national habitat network as a major contribution to safeguarding important designated wildlife sites and enhancing biodiversity.
• Forest Habitat Networks. Further information can be found at
  www.forestresearch.gov.uk/habitatnetworks

B.24 Invasive Non-Native Framework Strategy for Great Britain

• Scotland is involved in the implementation of the Invasive Non-Native Framework Strategy for Great Britain, through the input of SNH, FCS and others. This Framework aims to improve the prevention, surveillance, monitoring and rapid response to threats from invasive non-native species which are likely to increase in response to climate change.

B.25 Water security being examined as part of Scottish Water's water resource plans

• Scottish Water already has the facilities to pump water across the Central Belt from the West to the drier East for times of prolonged drought. It will consider the issues of water security in relation to climate change in is further development of water resource plans.

B.26 Managing healthy ecosystems

• SNH will shortly be starting a research project which will assess all SNH designated sites for their fragmentation status (including both woodland and non-woodland habitats), as well as options to improve this status at minimum cost. This will help to make these sites more robust in a changing climate, as well as ensuring they continue to play a key role in maintaining healthy ecosystems more widely.

B.27 Scottish Government's Rural & Environmental Research & Analysis Directorate ( RERAD)

• Scotland is renowned for its world leading environmental, agricultural and biological research. RERAD provides funding to many of Scotland's main research organisations in the areas of rural, environment and marine research (including the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Scottish Agricultural College, Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland, Moredun Research Institute, and Fisheries Research Services). This leads to shared knowledge that is helping Scotland meet one of the greatest challenges faced by the world today - climate change. RERAD invests approximately £60m each year in scientific research. This work includes research on monitoring the changes that are taking place today as well as how Scotland may best adapt to further impacts of climate change.

B.28SEPA's Research and Development Strategy

• SEPA's proposed Research and Development Strategy, to be launched later this year (08), will include climate change as a strategic theme. This will drive research priorities for SEPA for the next 3 years including analysis of historic datasets; development of indicators of change and adaptation responses; scenario planning; identification/ addressing knowledge, skills and capacity gaps.

B.29 Indicators of changes in the natural heritage

• SNH has reviewed a number of indicators of changes in the natural heritage and has identified several phenological indicators (i.e. related to timing of seasonal events), that provide the best means of detecting natural responses to climate change, for example dipper egg-laying.

B.30 Land use change

• Considerable steps have been taken by SNH and FCS to develop tools and concepts to help steer land use change to reduce fragmentation of woodlands and other habitats, and so help to build Scotland's biodiversity's resilience to climate change. These include the BEETLE modelling approach which has been used in effective and innovative ways to inform woodland creation. It has also been used outwith Scotland. Further work is planned, in particular through an SNH initiative to provide habitat network modelling tools via the internet.

B.31 Scotland Rural Development Programme

• Measures under the Scotland Rural Development Programme will help to increase ecosystem resilience to climate change, for example in restoring wetland and peatland habitats, restoring and expanding native woodlands.

B.32 Mountain snowbed vegetation

• A project led by Scottish Natural Heritage with RBGE and the University of Bergen has assessed changes in vegetation in mountain snowbeds, i.e. areas covered by snow for a large part of the year. This has shown some changes that may be in response to decreasing snow cover, and has set up sites for monitoring future changes.

B.33 Organic and organo-mineral soil

• SNH in partnership with SNIFFER is involved in a research project which will improve understanding of the influence of climate change and land management on erosion in the organic and organo-mineral soils in Scotland and Northern Ireland. SNH has also commissioned research on peat erosion and the management of peatland habitats.

B.34 Modelling Natural Resource Responses to Climate Change

• The MONARCH project, which the Scottish Government, Scottish Natural Heritage and other Scottish partners have supported provides evidence of the importance of climate change to biodiversity loss. Findings published in May 2007 show the possible impacts of climate change on the areas in which wildlife could live, using a sample of 32 species, 15 of which occur in Scotland.

B.35 Coastal landforms and habitats

• SNH is commissioning the first phase of a 3-year research project to look at vulnerability of coastal landforms and habitats around Scotland to future climate change. It aims to produce scenarios for the physical and ecological changes for our designated coastlines, culminating in recommendations for planning and policy development.

B.36 New plant and pathogen threats

• The Salford Centre for Research & Innovation is involved in identifying threats from new plants and pathogens. Knowledge of how these organisms work will be used to deploy cost effective control measures that are environmentally benign.

B.37 Biodiversity, landscapes and climate change

• Research at Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh is examining the way in which changing landscapes and climate may interact to affect biodiversity. This research will present opportunities for nature conservation such as building new habitats for migrating species in response to changing climate.

B.38 Water cycle changes

• The Macaulay Institute has a number of sites around Scotland that are collecting long term data on how climate change is affecting the water cycle.

B.39 Marine Climate Change Impacts Programme

• The Scottish Government supports the activities of the Marine Climate Change Impacts Programme who produce an annual report card highlighting the impact of climate change on the marine environment. The latest annual report card for 2007-08 is available at http://www.mccip.org.uk/arc/2007/PDF/ARC2007.pdf and includes conclusions on sea level rise.

B.40 The Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh is involved in research to predict and monitor the impact of climate change on Scotland's native plants.

Natural resource management: forestry, fishing and agriculture

Critical challenges

• Managing changing resource availability while protecting the environment, e.g. silviculture & forest operations
• Facilitating ecological adaptation
• Pests, disease and weather threats - both on a local scale and affecting global supply and demand
• The combined affects of pressure by fishing fleets and distribution shifts as a result of temperature changes on certain fish stocks
• Ongoing work at Scottish, UK and EU levels about understanding impact of changing climate and migration on factors such as disease patterns: changes in vector, tick, food and waterborne diseases etc.

Adaptation responses

Regulations, policies, research and activities contributing to climate adaptation

B.41 Forestry Commission Scotland research and local pilot trials

• The Forestry Commission Scotland has undertaken and continue to commission research and local pilot trials to provide evidence of forestry's valuable role in sustainable flood management and climate change adaptation.
• Forest Research has published a paper 'Impacts of climate change on forestry in Scotland - a synopsis of spatial modelling research':
  www.forestresearch.gov.uk/climatechangescotland
• This includes preliminary recommendations on adaptation and mitigation options to inform the development of Forestry Commission Scotland's Climate Change Action Plan: www.forestry.gov.uk/ccapscotland
• Forest Research have also published maps of Forest Habitat Networks - www.forestresearch.gov.uk/habitatnetworks - at the national and regional scale and Forestry Commission Scotland will be encouraging their application in strategic land use plans such as Indicative Forestry Strategies, Local Forestry Frameworks and long-term forest plans.
• Forestry Commission Scotland is preparing a woodland creation strategy to steer the implementation of the Scottish Government's ambition to expand Scotland's woodland cover from 17% to 25% of land area by the second half of this century. The strategy will consider the opportunities for both climate change mitigation and adaptation.
• Forestry Commission Scotland will be taking an active role in catchment-scale integrated land use flood management studies, focusing its efforts on investigation the role of floodplain woodlands in sustainable flood management and other management techniques that could help desynchronise flood peaks.
• Forest Enterprise Scotland are consulting on a Framework Strategic Plan and fourteen individual Forest District Strategic Plans which set out a strategy for managing the national forest estate, this including ways in which that estate will be adapted to cope with the future uncertainties of climate change as well as the ways in which it can help Scotland adapt to them - www.forestry.gov.uk/fesplans.

B.42 Climate change impacts on the marine environment

Marine climate change monitoring is reported through the Scottish Ocean Climate Status Reports, accessible from: http://www.frsscotland.gov.uk/FRS.Web/Delivery/display_standalone.aspx?contentid=545):

B.43 Soils research

• Soils work is focusing on the potential vulnerability of Scotland's peat soils to release large quantities of CO2 as temperatures increase, and on greenhouse gas emissions from intensive agricultural systems.

B.44 Ongoing agricultural research

• Ongoing agricultural research is assessing the likely impacts of climate change on crops and their diseases, livestock and their diseases, and on farming systems. Work is also beginning on adaptations that will be needed in the future in agricultural systems, such as new and tolerant crops, improved livestock, and better management practices.

B.45 Agriculture and Climate Change Stakeholder Group

• The Agriculture and Climate Change Stakeholder Group considered possible adaptation responses. Its report is available at:
  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/05/15115150/0

B.46 Integrated land use systems

• Current research on integrated land use systems is focusing on changes in land capability under climate change, the costs and benefits of renewable energy sources, on changes in consumer demand in the move to a low carbon economy, on the implications of these changes for ecosystem functioning, and on stakeholder perceptions of these changes.

B.47 Living with Environmental Change

• The Scottish Government is also contributing to the UK-wide research agenda through its involvement in UK's Living With Environmental Change initiative. The partnership, launched in 2007, brings together research councils, governments, businesses and other stakeholders focused on addressing the challenges posed by increasing pressures on natural resources and global climate whilst sustaining global economic development. The partnership will speed the development of the interdisciplinary evidence base, tools and processes that are needed to inform public and policy debates and people's choices about mitigation, management and adaptation options and opportunities. Further information on the UK Living With Environmental Change research programme can be found at: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/lwec

B.48 Marine research

• In the coastal, offshore and oceanic regions around Scotland, temperature and salinity are being measured to assess the changes in the marine environment over time. Currently research is being conducted to investigate ocean currents and predict regime shifts in shelf sea ecosystems, to assess the impact of rising temperatures on sandeels, to better understand harmful algal blooms and determine indicator phytoplankton species. Predictions of the impact of climate change are used in modelling the consequences of spatial management measures on important commercial fish stocks, such as cod.

B.49 Impacts on livestock

• Scientists at the Moredun Research Institute are investigating a range of sheep and cattle diseases, many of which are caused by internal and external parasites. The number of these parasites are increasing due to milder winters and warmer summers.

B.50 The Scottish Agricultural College's Rural Policy Centre is using a combination of science and policy to help rural business and communities understand the economics of mitigation and adaptation decisions.

B.51 Scotland's Soil Framework

• The Framework aims to raise the awareness on the role that soils, a key natural resource play in increasing sustainable economic growth. The Framework sets out the key pressures on soils, and specifically considers the role of soils in the context of climate change. It recognises that soils may contribute to climate change through greenhouse gas emission as well as being impacted by climate change. It highlights the need to investigate land management practices that will enhance the soils capacity to adapt to climate change, and stimulates the dissemination of such research outcomes amongst land managers.

B.52EU Soil Thematic Strategy and Framework Directive

• The European Commission adopted in 2006 a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection, which sets out the threats to soils in Europe and aims to promote soils protection measures amongst member states. In addition, a Soil Framework Directive to put in place a statutory mechanism to address soil degradation has been proposed. The European proposals specifically address the role of soils as a carbon store, as well as the fact that soils are affected by a changing climate. EU Environment Ministers have not to date been able to reach agreement on the legislative proposals.

Health and wellbeing

Critical challenges

• Climate change will have implications for the employment, activities, health, leisure and tourism opportunities for people living in and visiting Scotland
• Health impacts of changed conditions - for example, high temperatures and drier periods may have implications for air quality, such as increasing the frequency of conditions conducive to photochemical smog. Wetter and warmer periods could increase algal or fungal growth in buildings
• Increases in insects may impact on enjoyment of leisure and tourism activities
• Immediate and long-term health impacts of extreme weather events such as flooding or extreme cold and heat
• Management of public facilities - education, community and health etc.

Adaptation responses

Regulations, policies, research and activities contributing to climate adaptation

B.52 New public health legislation to improve effective notification systems

• The forthcoming Public Health Bill (currently at Stage 2 in Scottish Parliament) will improve the ability of Scottish Government and the public health community to identify the changing health challenges associated with climate change. The Bill will introduce an effective notification system to identify potential diseases, which may be caused by biological hazards, such as those associated with vector, tick, food and waterborne diseases, thereby prompting public health action.

B.53 New or exacerbated disease due to climate change

• Introduction of new diseases or exacerbation of existing diseases due to climate change immigration patterns or introduction of new vectors. The forthcoming Public Health Etc (Scotland) Bill will improve our ability to identify changing disease patterns and thus prompt a public health response.

B.54 Heat-related deaths

• In previous hot weather episodes the CMO has published advice to ensure the protection of public health.
• The Scottish Government is currently considering whether further formalisation of heatwave planning is required and this will be based on evidence gathered on the risk and possible implications for public health.

B.55 Health facilities management

• The current Scottish Government Environmental Management Policy for NHSScotland carries a mandatory requirement that "An NHSScotland Body's environmental strategy must include an assessment of the impacts of climate change and a suitable adaptation strategy. In particular, given the typical lifespan of property, the effect of the Governments long-term commitments on issues such as carbon dioxide emissions must be planned for."

B.56 Sustainable Tourism Partnership

• The Government has set up a Sustainable Tourism Partnership Group to promote sustainable tourism throughout Scotland. It involves private industry partners, as well as organisations such as VisitScotland, the Enterprise Agencies, local authorities, Scottish Natural Heritage, Historic Scotland and the National Parks.

B.57 Visitor Code of Practice

• Scottish Natural Heritage and the Tourism Innovation Group are writing A Code of Practice for Visitors, outlining how they should interact with the environment in a sustainable way. It is hoped the final document would be displayed at visitor attractions.

B.58 Sunsmart campaign

• The Scottish Government, along with the Departments of Health in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, continue to contribute to the funding of the SunSmart Campaign, run by Cancer Research UK, which is aimed at raising awareness of the risks of developing skin cancer and the actions everyone should take to limit their sun exposure.
• SunSmart aims to increase skin cancer awareness and methods of effective sun protection through information provision via website and printed resources for professionals to use in local health promotion activities.
• The SunSmart campaign emphasises the importance of early detection. The main campaign resources encourage people to check their skin and be aware of changes in size, shape or colour that happen over weeks or months.
• The SunSmart campaign targets those who are most at risk (i.e. those with fair skin, lots of moles or freckles or a family history of skin cancer) and promotes the UV Index so people can find out when they need to protect themselves.
• SunSmart's 'Workplace Health Promotion' campaign materials encourage workplaces with outdoor employees for example, in the construction and agricultural industries, to consider implementing strategies to protect their workers from overexposure during the summer months.

B.59 Differential social impacts of climate change in the UK

• The Scottish and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research is leading a project on Differential Social Impacts of Climate Change in the UK ( UKCC22) on behalf of SEPA.

B.60 Sustainable Tourism Indicators research

• The Tourism Framework for Change Strategy has the aim of making Scotland 'Europe's most sustainable tourism destination'. VisitScotland have commissioned a consultant to produce a piece of research which would describe what the most sustainable tourism destination would look like. This will then be analysed to develop sustainable tourism indicators for Scotland.

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