Guidance for understanding climate-related risks in maritime environments

Guidance for understanding climate-related risks in maritime environments

Understanding how marine climate change will impact society is crucial for effective adaptation and to increase resilience for coastal communities as well as for communities further from the coast who will be impacted indirectly by marine climate change.

The ‘Guidance for Understanding Climate-Related Risks to Development in Maritime Environments’ report provides an overview of contemporary approaches for characterising and understanding maritime climate-related risks to:

  • Marine ecosystems, including the location and health of mangroves, sea grass, coral reef systems and other key marine ecosystems which support lives and livelihoods.
  • Nationally important fishing territories, including fishing grounds, areas where these fish live, conditions for breeding, and other critical factors.
  • Coastal hazards, including coastal inundation events, tropical cyclones, storm surges, wind-driven waves, and sea level rise.
  • Coastal and offshore energy production and wealth extraction including gas fields, offshore wind.

The important characteristics of coastal regions, seas, and oceans are identified, and a synthesis of available datasets and analysis approaches for maritime climate-related risk assessments is provided.

 

This maritime climate risk guidance is complementary to the series of regional climate risk reports the Met Office has produced in collaboration with ODI and commissioned by FCDO to provide evidence to the UK Government in support of adaptation and resilience planning and investments.

The Climate Risk Reports are provided by CLARE Climate Risk Services. CLARE is a flagship research programme on climate adaptation and resilience, funded mostly (about 90%) by UK Aid through the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). CLARE is bridging critical gaps between science and action by championing Southern leadership to enable socially inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards. More information is available on the CLARE website here.