Climate Adaptation Officer

IMPORTANT:  This Advertiser has requested that applicants MUST be National Residents / Valid Work Permit-holders.  Other applicants need not apply.

 

Background:

Climate change cannot be avoided in the short term. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) greenhouse gases already present in the atmosphere will cause global temperature to rise by at least 1ºC over the next 30-40 years and by as much as 4ºC by the end of the century. A certain amount of warming is now unavoidable, due to gases that are already present in the atmosphere. We are already seeing the effects of this warming, and will continue to do so for years to come. Adaptation is crucial to deal with the unavoidable impacts of climate change to which we are already committed. Planned adaptation is more effective than last minute, reactive adaptation. Many impacts will result from extreme weather events, such as floods or storms, rather than average changes in weather, and these are difficult to predict far ahead. By the time you know what is happening, it will be too late to protect yourself, and you could face unexpected costs relating to business disruption, reduced productivity and costs of repairing or replacing damaged premises or equipment. Adaptation is not cost-free, but planned adaptation is usually less expensive than responding to an emergency or retrofitting to cope with altered climate risks.

Unlike mitigation, adaptation could provide immediate local benefits as your adaptation measures could equip you to cope better with current climate variability and extreme weather. Conversely, failure to adapt could result in you missing out on new opportunities and revenues that could arise from changing customer preferences and markets. To date Peterborough City Council has focussed climate change action primarily on mitigation activities. This includes working directly with schools and residents to reduce the city’s per capita carbon emissions and developing a Carbon Management Action Plan which commits the council to reducing its own emissions by 35% by 2014 based on 2008/09 levels.

Whilst some action has been undertaken to enable us to begin to adapt to the effects of climate change we are now in a position to bring this to the forefront and develop a comprehensive adaptation action plan for the city council.

This post will continue the work of a previous Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP) and begin by researching recent local weather events to enable this draft document to be updated and published, therefore beginning the process of introducing climate change adaptation within the city council.

The post will then develop risk assesment methodology which the post holder will use to work alongside key stakeholders within the organisation to understand risks and develop potential adpative responses culminating in a draft climate adaptation action plan for the organisation.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work as part of the climate change team within Peterborough City Council and also benefit from working closely with Peterborough Environment City Trust.

Objective:

This job will involve building on the LCLIP work that has already been undertaken and using the findings to develop and undertake risk assessment across the authority resulting in the production of a draft climate adaptation action plan.

 

For more information and to apply please follow the link below:

http://www.changeagents.org.uk/Graduates/GradVacDetails.asp?ProjNo=2044