CCC Adaptation Monitoring Framework

Introduction

Since 2010, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has produced adaptation progress reports to assess the progress made towards implementing the objectives, proposals, and policies of government adaptation programmes.

In 2026, we refreshed our monitoring and evaluation approach with the most up-to-date information on climate risk in the UK and effective adaptation, using evidence from the Fourth Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA4-IA) Well-Adapted UK report and the CCRA4-IA Technical Report.

This page provides a guide to our current monitoring framework on adapting to climate change. This is an evolving framework which we will continue to update over time.

This framework was updated in May 2026.

For reports published between 2023 and 2025, please read our Adaptation Monitoring Framework 2023–2025

1. Climate duties in the UK, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales

The CCC has statutory obligations to monitor progress in adapting to climate change, as set out in the UK’s national adaptation plans.

• UK: under the Climate Change Act (2008) (the Act (2008)), the UK Government has an obligation to assess the risks of the current and predicted impact of climate change, and to set out a programme for adaptation to address those risks.
  • The previous UK Government published its Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) in July 2023. NAP3 outlines plans to manage the risks from climate change highlighted in the 2022 Climate Change Risk Assessment covering the period 2023 to 2028. It covers those areas falling within scope of the UK Government’s responsibilities in relation to England, and its non-devolved functions in relation to the rest of the UK. The NAP is due to be updated in 2028. It is coordinated by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) but requires actions across all government departments.
  • The Act (2008) requires the CCC to provide biennial progress reports on adaptation, with the first published in 2010 and the most recent in 2025. These reports review the latest trends in climate change in the UK and track progress on key indicators for adaptation progress. They also assess the strength and credibility of government ambition and policy across key systems.
• Northern Ireland (NI): under the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 (the Act (2022)), the Department of Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs (DAERA) must publish a summary and assessment of public body reports on climate adaptation.
  • The current Northern Irish Administration published its Third Climate Change Adaptation Programme (NICCAP3) in 2026. This covers the period up to 2029. This sets out the NI Executive Departments’ response to the climate risks which have been identified in the UK’s Third Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3), which fall within devolved areas of responsibility.
  • The Act (2022) requires the CCC to provide an adaptation progress assessment no later than three years into each five-year cycle of the Northern Ireland Climate Change Adaptation Programme (NICCAP). The most recent was published in 2023.
• Scotland: under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (the Act (2009)), there is a duty on ministers to lay a programme for climate change adaptation following each UK Climate Change Risk Assessment. The Act (2009) contains a legal duty across the public sector to help deliver the objectives. The Scottish Government is also required to develop an annual report on progress towards their adaptation programme.
  • The current Scottish Government published its Third Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3) in 2024 which covers the period 2024 to 2029. This sets out Scotland’s long-term vision and priorities for action to respond to the climate risks in the UK’s CCRA3, which fall within devolved areas of responsibility.
  • The Act (2009) requires Scottish Ministers to request the CCC provide an adaptation progress assessment within a period of two years from when the programme is first laid. The first report was published in 2011 with the most recent report published in 2023.
• Wales: under the Climate Change Act (2008), Welsh ministers must from time-to-time report on the Welsh Government’s objectives, actions, and future priorities regarding impacts of climate change.
  • The current Welsh Government published the Climate Adaptation Strategy for Wales in 2024. The plan will be reviewed and updated by 2029. The strategy sets out a vision and framework to manage the climate risks identified in the UK’s CCRA3, which falls within devolved areas of responsibility.
  • The CCC can be requested to provide Welsh ministers with advice, analysis, information or other assistance on matters relating to climate change. The most recent report requested by Welsh ministers was published in 2023.

2. Our benchmark to measure UK progress

We assess progress made towards implementing the objectives, proposals, and policies set out in national adaptation plans for 14 systems across the UK. The systems cover all risks identified in the CCRA4-IA Technical Report and map to the adaptation programmes developed by the UK Government, the Northern Ireland Executive, the Scottish Government, and the Welsh Government (Table 1). These systems break down the adaptation challenge into manageable and coherent units and consider existing key actor responsibilities. This is designed to help assign ownership for coordinating an adaptation response, with our systems intended to map to policy areas.

Some climate change risks and adaptation actions will cut across systems. Risk impacts in one system can be reduced or amplified by action or inaction in other systems. For example, actions and policy levers in the land system to deliver objectives for maintaining good ecological health can lead to cross-cutting benefits such as reducing surface water run-off in downstream communities.

• Health: assets, facilities, and operations to protect and maintain population health and deliver health and social care.
• Built environment and communities: cities, towns and villages, buildings, and the communities that live and work in them.   
• Public services: facilities and operations of public services (outside of health and social care), focusing on education, justice, and emergency services.   
• Cultural heritage: heritage sites and cultural landscapes, heritage buildings, and fixed and moveable assets. For example, UNESCO sites, archaeological landscapes, heritage listed buildings, statues, artwork, and historic documents.
• Water and wastewater: public water supply and wastewater infrastructure and services.
• Energy: production or generation, storage, transport, and distribution of electricity and fuels (including gas, oil, bioenergy, and sustainable aviation fuel), as well as emerging systems for hydrogen and carbon transport and storage.
• Transport: infrastructure and services for roads (including trunk and local roads, bus and active travel), rail (including passenger, freight, metro, and light rail), aviation (including airports and air-travel operations), and maritime infrastructure (including ports, inland waterways, ferries, and shipping).   
• Waste: waste services and waste management sites, including historic waste sites, waste tips from the mining industry, and nuclear waste sites.  
• Digital and telecoms: digital and telecoms infrastructure and services, including data centres which store and process digital information, and public and private electronic communications networks.  
• Land: terrestrial and freshwater habitats and ecosystems, and commercial activities that depend on land, such as farming and forestry.
• Sea: marine environment in UK waters, including marine habitats, marine fisheries, and aquaculture.   
• Food security: international production and the sourcing, importing, processing, manufacturing, and distribution of food. This includes imported inputs to UK agriculture.  
• Economy and finance: businesses’ assets, operations, and supply chains, the financial sector, and the broader economic strength of the UK. 
• National security and international engagement: UK national security, foreign policy, and development interests, relating towards global adaptation goals.

3. CCC’s assessment framework

The CCC’s assessment framework is based on the most up-to-date evidence provided in the Well-Adapted UK report (2026).

The Well-Adapted UK report contains the Committee’s advice to the UK Government on the path to adapt to 2˚C of global warming above preindustrial levels by 2050, as well as considering effective adaptation planning for 4˚C of global warming above preindustrial level by the end-of-century. This is underpinned by 21 objectives for national adaptation that cover critical areas of our lives. To drive action, the objectives are accompanied by proposals for clear, measurable, and time-bound targets where evidence allows. This requires setting out the steps on how to achieve adaptation ambition through the policy levers available to government.

As a step towards this, the CCC has mapped relationships between the objectives and targets advised in the Well-Adapted UK report, with adaptation actions, enablers, and policies. These components are summarised in a monitoring map for each system and form the basis of our monitoring and evaluation framework (see Section 1.4). We then undertake an assessment of progress towards achieving government’s ambition and the policies and plans in place. This allows us to evaluate the level of preparedness in each area and identify important policy gaps or key areas that need to be strengthened.

Framework components

The components of the framework are defined as follows:

• Objective: the ambition for a well-adapted UK in each system.
• Targets: measurable time-bound targets that set an effective level of adaptation for key areas in a system. These are based on government targets where they exist. Where there are no government targets, the Committee has proposed potential targets.
• Actions: the priority adaptation actions required to deliver the adaptation ambition in each system. These are selected based on the costs of delivery, the potential for climate risk reduction, and the feasibility, scalability, and co-benefits of the actions. The most appropriate adaptation actions will vary depending on location and nature of the climate risk.
• Enablers: factors required to implement the adaptation actions and achieve the objectives in each system. Key examples include resources, plans, roles and responsibilities, and engagement, awareness, and support.
• Policies: government levers required to implement adaptation actions and achieve the ambition in each system. Key examples include governance, information provision, regulation and standards, public provision, economic incentives, and international collaboration.

Outputs of the assessment framework

The CCC’s adaptation progress reports consist of the following core outputs to build a complete picture of progress towards meeting government’s objectives, proposals, and policies on climate adaptation.

• Latest climate change trends: we analyse the impacts of observed climate change and projected changes in climate both in the UK and globally.
• Indicators of progress: we identify a set of indicators that provide a meaningful and representative reflection of current progress. These track both outcomes (progress towards meeting objectives and targets) and outputs (adaptation measures and enablers) to provide an assessment of progress. We choose indicators based on their quality, relevance, and practicality, with year-on-year monitoring in mind. However, availability of indicators that track adaptation progress is limited, so additional evidence can be used to supplement the assessment.
• Assessment of policies and plans: we monitor governments’ plans and policies to assess whether they are on track to deliver their vision for climate adaptation as set out in their national adaptation plans. This includes assessing whether policies and plans are comprehensive, with enablers (such as funding and monitoring and evaluation) and clear timelines in place.
• Recommendations: we make recommendations to government departments and other relevant bodies, outlining the next steps that need taking. The UK Government presents their response to the recommendations to Parliament (it is not obliged to accept exact recommendations and can pursue alternative routes to meeting ambition where these exist). We assess progress on delivering the recommendations that are accepted by government in the following progress report.

4. System monitoring maps

Click the links below to view the monitoring map for each system.

• Well-adapted health system
• Well-adapted built enviornment and communities system
• Well-adapted public services system
• Well-adapted cultural heritage system
• Well-adapted water and wastewater system
• Well-adapted energy system
• Well-adapted transport system
• Well-adapted waste system
• Well-adapted digital and telecoms system
• Well-adapted land system
• Well-adapted seas system
• Well-adapted food security system
• Well-adapted economy and finance system
• Well-adapted national security and international engagement system