Desai, Apeksha, Ali, Fuad and Jones, Keith (2012) Barriers to build asset adaptation in private service sector. In: Research Workshop "Barriers to Adaptation to Climate Change”, 18-21 Sep 2012, Berlin, Germany.

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Abstract

It is becoming increasingly acknowledged that adaptation and mitigation are equally important and often interrelated approaches to climate change. Recent adaptation initiatives in the UK include the promotion of many policies, reporting and economic support in the public sector. However, adaptation in the private sector still lacks such structured initiative and is initiated largely in response to external forces.

This paper presents a review of UK-based adaptation initiatives and presents a study of the adaptation decisionmaking process for the built assets of a large private sector organisation. The study was undertaken as a part of a PhD research programme that evaluated the usefulness of the UKCIP Risk, Uncertainty and Decision-making Framework as well as the UKCIP 02 climate change projections for facilities management decision-making. The
decision-making framework and projections were used by a group of facilities personnel responsible for built asset management to explore various climate risks and develop adaptation solutions. The paper reports on issues associated with implementing the first three stages of the decision-making framework, in particular the problems faced by facilities management professionals in operationalising the risks and evaluating solutions. The following findings were drawn.

A) Adaptation in the private sector is initiated against an external change or signal, for example market forces or experience of a climate-related extreme event. B) For many built asset professionals the transformation of scientific climate change data into impacts on their built asset is a demanding task in terms of required knowledge and time. This process is further complicated by the long time horizon (30 years) associated with climate projections compared to the short time horizon (5-10 years) for strategic business decisions, and the uncertainty attached to climate change projections. C) As a result of (B), much of the analysis for decisionmaking remains qualitative and semi-quantitative and lacks gravitas when hard financial decisions have to be made. D) The perception and attitude of managerial and strategic decision-making personnel towards climate change shapes the decision-making process and adaptation option selection. E) Adaptive capacity, in terms of the time, finance and expertise available to organisations is important to achieving successful adaptation goals. Although, the new UKCP09 projections have been made available since the completion of the study, many of the findings are generic in nature and directly applicable to these new tools. In conclusion, by conceptualising the observed adaptation process with that of organisation learning, it is suggested that literature on organisation learning is likely to provide an effective basis for understanding and promoting the adaptation in the private
sector.

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	climate change, private sector adaptation, barriers, organisational learning
Subjects:	T Technology > TH Building construction
Pre-2014 Departments:	School of Architecture, Design & Construction > Sustainable Built Environments Research Group
Last Modified:	14 Oct 2016 09:24
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/9665

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