Consultation on the Fifth Round of the Climate Adaptation Reporting Power

Overview

Section 62 of the CCA 2008 gives the Secretary of State the power to direct reporting organisations (those with functions of a public nature or statutory undertakers) to produce reports setting out:

• the current and future projected impacts of climate change on their organisation
• proposals for adapting to climate change
• an assessment of progress towards implementing the policies and proposals set out in previous reports.

This is known as the Adaptation Reporting Power (ARP). It was introduced to help ensure that organisations with important public functions outside central government are taking appropriate action to adapt to the current and future impacts of climate change. It helps do this directly, by necessitating the assessment of risks and planning of actions by reporting organisations, and indirectly, by raising awareness, building capacity in organisations, and making examples of good practice publicly available. Under the CCA 2008, the government’s proposed strategy for exercising the ARP is subject to public consultation. 

The strategy for the fifth round of ARP (ARP5) will, following this consultation, constitute the “report on exercise of power to give directions” required under section 65 of the CCA 2008.

In particular, we are consulting on the following considerations:

• A limited expansion in reporting bodies. Building on the local authority reporting pilot in the previous round, we propose to expand the scope of ARP5 to include strategic (i.e. combined) authorities.
• A limited and targeted approach to mandating reporting. We propose to use the legal power sparingly, to target non-reporting and gaps in coverage, with enhanced guidance to improve report quality. 

The consultation document (PDF) with full detail of all proposals for the ARP5 strategy is linked below, together with the two supplementary reports referred to in the consultation document, as well as Defra's privacy notice.