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Legal Obligations on Adaptation:
The energy sector as critical
infrastructure
Parliamentary hearing
Nordic Folkecenter, Hurup Thy,Denmark
05.10.12
Sarah Hendel-Blackford
The Ecofys Expertise
Ecofys Expertise
Energy &
Carbon Efficiency
Renewable Energy
Energy Systems &
Markets
Energy &
Climate Policy
Supply Chains
Wind
Integrated Energy
Systems
Policy Design &
Evaluation
Buildings
Bio
Power Systems &
Markets
Market-based
mechanisms
Industrial Processes
Solar
Fossil & Nuclear
Energy
International
Climate Policies
Sustainable Transport
HSE for renewables
Carbon Capture &
Storage
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© ECOFYS | 24/05/2017 |
Legal Obligations on adaptation
• Adaptation: an emerging obligation
• Adaptation: legal liabilities?
•UK: The Adaptation Reporting Power
• EU: Adaptation Strategy 2013
• Challenges, solutions
•Questions for discussion
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© ECOFYS | 24/05/2017 | Giel Linthorst
Adaptation: an emerging obligation
International case law
UK Adaptation
Reporting Power
(ARP) 2008
EU policy and
Strategy (2013)
•Increasing awareness of need to consider impacts and adaptation options
•Increasing legal obligations in some cases (UK)
•Increasing liability?
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© ECOFYS | 24/05/2017 | Giel Linthorst
Legal sector and adaptation
‘We are likely to see the use of litigation as a means to recover costs …
courts will examine claims and may decide that it was reasonable, at the
time the decision was made or advice given, to have foreseen the impacts
of climate change, based on the information available in the public
domain.’ (UKCIP 2006)
‘Climate change litigation alongside extreme weather events
are likely to become more prevalent in the coming years.
Solicitors need to be prepared to take the risks of climate change
into consideration when advising clients.
Those who do so quickly will be well placed to take advantage of the opportunities .'
Vanessa Havard-Williams, Chair of the LSA's Policy Working Group
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UK Adaptation Reporting Power: critical
infrastructure (1)
UK Climate Change Act 2008 : new obligation on critical infrastructure to
prepare reports on how they assess and act on the risks and
opportunities from a changing climate.
Reports to cover:
• (a) an assessment of the current and predicted impact of climate
change in relation to the reporting authority’s functions;
• (b) a statement of the reporting authority’s proposals and policies for
adapting to climate change in the exercise of its functions and the
time-scales for introducing those proposals and policies
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© ECOFYS | 24/05/2017 | Giel Linthorst
UK Adaptation Reporting Power: critical
infrastructure (1)
Energy sector:
Electricity Distributors, generators, transmitters and gas transporters.
Best practice:
•
Costs identified by energy distribution sector, such as adapting the
electricity distribution network to climate change and the costs of
replacing specific assets.
Challenges:
•Only comprises the risks that the organisations identified!
•Plans for monitoring and evaluating adaptation effectiveness are not clear
•Need to explore interdependencies
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EU: mainstreaming adaptation
EU Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change
Spring 2013 :
1. Enhancing the knowledgebase and widening access to
information (research)
2. Mainstreaming adaptation into policies, strategies and
programmes at EU level
3. Capturing the potential of the market, market-based
instruments and the private sector
4. Support to and facilitation of collaboration, exchange of
knowledge and best practice examples, etc. between
Member States, regions, cities and other stakeholders
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© ECOFYS | 24/05/2017 | Giel Linthorst
Challenges…and solutions
•Maladaptation:
Energy intensive adaptation solutions
Perceived trade off/conflict between adaptation and mitigation
•Climate change is not the driver:
Policy uncertainty
Financial uncertainty
•Interdependencies:
Cascade failures and regional convergences
•Role of local players:
Impacts are local and need locally tailored responses
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© ECOFYS | 24/05/2017 | Giel Linthorst
Questions for discussion
•Is there adequate understanding between adaptation and
mitigation communities?
•What is the role of local players in bridging the gap?
Climate change could be the next legal battlefield: compensation
claims for man-made environmental
damages would make the tobacco sector payouts look small.”
Financial Times, 14 July 2003
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© ECOFYS | 24/05/2017 | Giel Linthorst