Climate Adaptation Procurement

Tender description

In June 2019, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) declared a climate emergency and the WMCA Board agreed a target for the region to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2041. A ‘green paper’ was written to indicate how the region could take action in order to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2041. This was approved by the Combined Authority Board in January 2020 for consultation until 12th March 2020. Since the approval of this paper the Environment & Energy Programme has developed into broad areas of net zero, energy systems, natural capital and the circular economy, with corresponding plans or strategies that shape delivery activity. Each of these areas of work has its own plan with detailed data and intelligence to underpin the actions of WMCA and partners in the region. Climate change adaptation has, until recently, been less well understood in our work and more widely by the region’s organisations and businesses. The WMCA recently worked with the Environment Agency (EA) and Sustainability West Midlands (SWM) to support the development of a plan for the whole region (not just the WMCA area), the West Midlands Climate Change Adaptation Plan. More widely, the UK Government recently published the UK’s Third Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3) following on from the Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk by the Climate Change Committee in June 2021. The contract requires a series of outputs including: 1. A high level summary of the climate change scenarios, likely impacts and prioritised risks across the WMCA area to be developed into a clear report for publication 2. The role, responsibilities and opportunities for WMCA in helping the region adapt to climate change 3. The next steps in evidence, data and mapping relating to enable a better understanding of climate impacts across the West Midlands 4. An overview of the adaptation financing options 5. A summary of the approaches to climate adaptation in other regions and UK cities