Summary
Glasgow City Region is the powerhouse of the Scottish economy, driving prosperity for a third of Scotland’s population. Our economy is undergoing a transformation, shifting focus from pure economic growth to building an economy that works for everyone and operates within environmental limits. Sustainable economic prosperity will need to be resilient to current and future climate change to remain competitive and continue to thrive.
Effort to develop in a way that sustainable now and into the future can be seen in the development and implementation of inclusive growth agendas, as well as efforts to address water security, energy and resource efficiency, greening waste management and encouraging the circular economy.
Key climate related risks and opportunities
Climate change will affect the city region’s economy, business and industry by:
Increasing business disruption due to extreme weather events, flooding, coastal erosion, and sea level rise. Infrastructure disruption may affect the ability of employees to access sites, prevent them working remotely whilst higher temperatures may reduce productivity or even stop work completely.
Disrupting wider supply chains and business productivity. Small businesses make up the majority of businesses in the city region. They are particularly at risk as they are less able to prepare, respond and recover than larger organisations.
Impacting business productivity due to water scarcity which could impact certain manufacturing sub-sectors that are water-intense, such as chemical products, basic metals, paper products, food and beverages.
Increasing tourism related opportunities due to warmer temperatures and improved average climate. This city region’s forestry and woodland could benefit significantly, increasing the numbers of activities available for tourists, such as walking and cycling.
Providing opportunities for developing new products and services to support adaptation. The city region is already selling goods and services and innovating. Improving economic development policy could ensure the city region has a leading role in a strategic opportunity for Scotland in a similar way to the low carbon economy, helping secure economic benefit whilst improving local adaptation and resilience.
Use our interactive index to navigate to relevant information based on particular climate hazards, risks, sectors, and actions.
Next steps to creating a climate-resilient economy, business and industry
Continue to deliver flood risk reduction projects to reduce the risk to existing non-domestic premises, and future investment locations.
More direct support to businesses (and particularly SMEs) to understand how climate hazards will affect their business and to adapt. This includes understanding risks to premises, productivity and supply chain risks due to floods, heat, and wider hazards.
Analyse how business supply chain disruption may be experienced in the city region, and support businesses to improve their supply chain resilience.
Continue to develop the tourism offer of the city region to make the most of a future climate.
Provide economic development support to the adaptation economy, to ensure the city region seizes the small but strategically important sector capturing the associated economic uplift and expertise.
Review how the various Glasgow City Region plans and strategies that relate to the economy, business and industry, as well as national plans applied locally address future climate projections.
