National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN ISO 14090:2019.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee SES/1/7, Greenhouse gas management and related activities.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its secretary.

This publication does not purport to include all the necessary provisions of a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 July 2019.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 207, Environmental management, Subcommittee SC 7, Greenhouse gas management and related activities.

This document is the generic standard for adaptation to climate change.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

Introduction

Climate change is impacting organizations in various ways and will continue to do so for decades to come, owing to greenhouse gases emitted since the start of the Industrial Revolution. The extent of future climate change will depend on the effectiveness of efforts to limit further emissions of greenhouse gases and to manage other factors that impact radiative forcing. Therefore, climate change adaptation is required to reduce the threats and maximize the opportunities presented to organizations of all kinds by a changing climate.

In November 2016, the Paris Agreement came into force to limit global temperature rise and it established a global adaptation goal of “enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change, with a view to contributing to sustainable development and ensuring an adequate adaptation response in the context of the temperature goal”. Implementation of the Paris Agreement, along with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) as agreed in 2015, helps to drive global efforts towards actions that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as build climate resilience.

Climate change impacts can be direct or indirect and can take various forms such as physical, social, financial, political, regulatory or reputational, and as such climate change adaptation has a very broad scope. This document will enable organizations to prioritize and develop effective, efficient and deliverable adaptation tailored to the specific climate change challenges they face. Its main purpose is therefore to provide organizations with a consistent, structured and pragmatic approach to prevent or minimize the harm that climate change could cause and also to take advantage of opportunities. Applying this approach enables organizations to give appropriate consideration to climate change adaptation when designing, implementing, improving and updating policies, strategies, plans and activities.

The application of this document is intended to be performed alongside other organizational priorities. This includes carrying out all climate change adaptation activities in parallel with, or integrated with, climate change mitigation activities and other sustainability priorities.

Furthermore, application of this document can assist in demonstrating to interested parties that an organization’s approach to climate change adaptation is credible. This document can also be of relevance to individuals and organizations involved in purchasing, investment and insurance when seeking to understand another organization’s climate change adaptation. It is designed to help organizations develop measures and report on adaptation activity in a verifiable way.

This document’s approach is relevant to all sizes and types of organizations where their activities, products and services might be threatened by, or in some cases able to take advantage of, climate change. The approach within this document is iterative, supporting continual learning and improvement processes aimed at all scales, from local to multinational organizations, those in the public and private sectors, voluntary and community organizations, single, small and medium size enterprises. This document is relevant regardless of the scope of adaptation and can be used in the context of both incremental change and transformation.

The purposely non-linear nature of this document’s approach allows organizations to adopt its structure no matter what stage they are at in climate change adaptation, from those just starting out to those already engaged in adaptation to those choosing to lead the way. Organizations might find themselves moving back and forth between multiple elements, depending upon the challenges they face and the lessons they learn from delivery experience. The structure is however logical, iterative and designed to be applied into the future. The structure covers:

pre-planning;
assessing impacts including opportunities;
adaptation planning;
implementation;
monitoring and evaluation;
reporting and communication.

In this document, the following verbal forms are used:

“shall” indicates a requirement;
“should” indicates a recommendation;
“may” indicates a permission;
“can” indicates a possibility or a capability.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 17 June 2019.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN ISO 14090:2019) has been prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 207 "Environmental management" in collaboration with CCMC.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by January 2020, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by January 2020.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organizations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Endorsement notice

The text of ISO 14090:2019 has been approved by CEN as EN ISO 14090:2019 without any modification.

1 Scope

This document specifies principles, requirements and guidelines for adaptation to climate change. This includes the integration of adaptation within or across organizations, understanding impacts and uncertainties and how these can be used to inform decisions.

This document is applicable to any organization, regardless of size, type and nature, e.g. local, regional, international, business units, conglomerates, industrial sectors, natural resource management units.

This document can support the development of sector-, aspect- or element-specific climate change adaptation standards.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Principles

4.1 General

4.2 Change-oriented perspective

4.3 Flexibility

4.4 Mainstreaming and embedding

4.5 Robustness

4.6 Subsidiarity

4.7 Sustainability

4.8 Synergy between adaptation and mitigation of climate change

4.9 Systems thinking

4.10 Transparency

4.11 Accountability

5 Pre-planning

6 Assessing climate change impacts including opportunities

6.1 General

6.2 Impact assessment methods

6.3 Assessing adaptive capacity

6.4 Identifying opportunities

6.5 Identifying uncertainties

7 Adaptation planning

7.1 General

7.2 Policy, strategy and planning context

7.3 Decision-making

7.4 Adaptation plan

8 Implementation

8.1 Leadership and commitment

8.2 Implementation plan

9 Monitoring and evaluation

10 Reporting and communication

Bibliography

BS EN ISO 14090:2019

Adaptation to climate change. Principles, requirements and guidelines

Current

Published:

31 Jul 2019