Following the Council's declaration of a Climate Emergency in April 2019, the Climate Emergency Working Group recommended to Full Council on 15 October 2019 that a Climate Change Action Plan should be developed. In May 2022, the Climate Change Action Plan was approved by full council with action 7.1 being to produce a Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan.
The Climate Adaptation Scilly project started in 2021, with the aim of building sea defences and restoring sand dunes to protect against coastal flooding and erosion, and improving resilience to drought through funding rainwater harvesting tanks for businesses. The project included funding to develop the Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan, known as the Isles of Scilly Resilient Islands Strategy (IoSRIS).
The Isles of Scilly Resilient Island Strategy was developed as part of the Climate Adaptation Scilly Project through consultation and engagement with the local community and was adopted at a full Council meeting in March 2024. This sets out a comprehensive, community-led plan to help the islands adapt to the growing impacts of climate change, recognising their vulnerability due to low-lying geography, exposure to Atlantic storms, and reliance on sensitive natural and infrastructure systems. It combines climate risk assessment, stakeholder engagement, and scientific projections to identify key threats such as sea level rise, coastal flooding, erosion, drought, and extreme weather, and evaluates how these risks affect the natural environment, infrastructure, health and communities, and the local economy.
From this strategy a Resilient Island Strategy Implementation Plan was produced, designed to give us a set of achievable actions to work towards our goals. This outlines how the Council and local stakeholders will put adaptation actions into practice to build resilience against climate change impacts such as sea level rise, drought and extreme weather. It emphasises shared responsibility across government, businesses, and residents, and provides a structured framework for taking action, monitoring progress, and continually improving resilience over time.
You can read the full strategy and plan by opening the files at the bottom of this page
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Resilient Island Strategy Implementation Plan | 1.8 MB |
| Resilient Island Strategy | 3.25 MB |