Stage 8.1 Monitor climate impacts on the energy sector

Who's Involved
  • Energy sector managers, guided by Assignment Management Team
Timing and time required
  • On an ongoing basis
  • As part of routine operations
Key questions
  1. Are climate-related risks to the energy sector  acceptable?
  2. Are critical climate-related thresholds being approached?
  3. Does monitoring indicate that the risks are changing over time?
Tools
  • Risk Register
  • Monitoring methods
Guidance
  1. For risks where the decision has been taken not to implement adaptation measures (see Stage 6.1), SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) indicators should be developed and monitored, linking energy sector performance to climatic factors. The risk assessment (Stage 3) will help in deciding which indicators are most important to monitor.
  2. The purpose of monitoring is to develop better understanding of the effects of climatic factors on energy sector performance, so as to be able to detect when climate-related success criteria are threatened by changing climate conditions and therefore when adaptation measures will be needed.
  3. Where implementation of adaptation measures requires a long planning time horizon, it is important that sufficient time is available to implement measures.
    • For instance, planning and delivery of a new reservoir to provide additional water storage capacity for a hydropower plant can be a lengthy process, taking many years.
  4. Based on the monitoring, the Risk Register should be reviewed and updated as required.
Outputs
  • SMART targets
  • Updated Risk Register