Climate Change

SNIFFER works with its members to provide up to date and informative data on recent trends in the climates of Scotland and Northern Ireland, predicted future impacts and recommended adaptation measures. We are increasingly taking forward work that contributes to the overall picture of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK to inform the challenge of achieving our future emissions reduction targets.  

SNIFFER provides the coordinating function for two partnerships:

• The Scottish Climate Change Impacts Partnership (SCCIP)
• The Northern Ireland Climate Change Impacts Partnership (NICCIP)  

We also manage several collaborative research projects on climate change within both the environmental regulation and climate change topic areas.

Read more.

Differential Social Impacts of Climate Change in the UK - report now published

Research on the differential social impacts of climate change in the UK has now been published.

The research, which was undertaken by CAG Consultants, draws attention to the link between climate and welfare, and scopes out national and local actions that redress the balance for those disproportionately affected by climate change. It provides a literature review and social impacts framework that recommends a number of key adaptation responses for government, agencies and community leaders.

Key findings of the work include that community empowerment is critical to building capacity to adapt to climate change, clear and consistent messages on climate change are needed, and climate change demands an integrated response to mitigation and adaptation, with action supporting the wider goals of sustainable development.

Go to the reports

Climate Change Tools and Resources

Since 2001 SNIFFER has taken forward several research projects on climate change.  Please use the project search to view the completed, active and proposed projects. 

In 2006 SNIFFER published a Technical report of climate trends across Scotland (project CC03), which outlines the climatic changes across Scotland over the last century. A Climate trends handbook report was also developed for ease of accessing the data and images underpinning the trends. The online toolkit version of the Scottish climate trends handbook is available here: http://climatetrendshandbook.sccip.org.uk/


In 2008 SNIFFER published Minimising Greenhouse Gas Emissions Caused by Environmental Regulation in Scotland and Northern Ireland (project UKPIR11). A toolbox for mitigating climate change was developed. This provides information about carbon footprint reduction for industry and can be found on the project page linked above. 

In 2008 SNIFFER published A Review of Climate Change Mitigation Tools for Local Authorities (project CC06). To access the climate change tools database, click here and you will be directed to the Sustainable Scotland Network climate change portal, which houses the guidance for selecting the right tools for the right jobs and database search facility.

Climate Change Briefing Notes

There have been several recent contributions to the debate on climate change that challenge both the science and the economics behind policy responses. In response SNIFFER has commissioned a short briefing note on the subject. Any feedback on this  would be useful for us in planning the production of  future short briefings on topical subjects.

Useful Links

• SCCIP website