Implementation of climate change adaptation : stratetic and practical recommendations for the Swedish Fortifications Agency

Ongoing and future climate change is a major challenge for the Swedish Fortifications Agency (SFA) which is a large owner of land, installations and properties all over Sweden. Its main customer, the Swedish Armed Forces, has high demands on security and reliability. Climate adaptation is therefore necessary and critical for several reasons. To minimize risks and take advantage of opportunities can be cost-efficient; laws and regulations may demand that anticipated threats and risks are being managed and controlled; the brand SFA as a serious strategic and forward-looking actor concerned with sustainability and reliability could be strengthened, and the responsibility to the State, the surrounding society, customers and employees also entail that risks and vulnerabilities must be reduced. This report analyses SFA's possibilities of an efficient inclusion of climate adaptation in decision-making and planning processes. It is based on recent research findings of organizations' ability and capacity to implement climate adaptation as well as experiences from discussions with SFA. The main goals of the study have been to (1) analyze needs of possible necessary changes and/or actions in imposing implementation in SFA's decision-making processes; (2) identify critical decisionmaking times, what they are and how other actors might affect them, and (3) describe how the climate adaptation tool, that is being developed by FOI for SFA, is to be used for decision-making. In conclusion, SFA seemingly is well equipped to perform continuous climate adaptation work. This project has resulted in recommendations to facilitate an efficient implementation. The climate adaptation tool needs to be developed further, and tested in case studies and concrete planning and decision-making processes. Risks and opportunities related to climate changes should be incorporated in all relevant processes and investment projects. Of particular importance are the strategic processes: garrison planning, strategic property planning, risk analyses, risk- and vulnerability assessments and security analyses. One should always ask 'Do we need to consider climate changes here?'. In general, organizations need increased knowledge to understand why climate adaptation is needed. With increased understanding implementation will occur more efficient and knowledge is needed to obtain the wanted results. This most likely also applies to SFA. The organization will become better prepared for climate adaptation by initiating a serious discussion of issues related to implementation and how to secure and coordinate resources, as well as cooperation with other actors and by starting an active dialogue with its customers. This report presents suggestions on how to tackle these issues.