We recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to become one of the 20 founding organisations of Climate Ready Infrastructure Scotland.
Environment Manager Faye Hyslop explains how extreme weather and climate change can affect our infrastructure and how this partnership can help us.
We’re proud to be one of the founding organisations of Climate Ready Infrastructure Scotland, a new partnership bringing together utilities, regulators, and public bodies to prepare our infrastructure for the impacts of climate change.
The 20 founding organisations of Climate Ready Infrastructure Scotland.
Despite the vast majority of our gas network being underground, extreme weather can affect it in several ways:
- Washouts: Prolonged or intense rainfall can erode the soil surrounding our buried gas mains, particularly in hilly or coastal areas. This can expose pipework, weaken support structures, and in some cases lead to damage or disconnection.
- Disrupted access: In an emergency, our engineers need fast, safe access to assets. But in extreme weather, roads can be blocked by snow, flooding, or fallen trees – delaying our response and potentially putting customers at risk.
- Asset damage: Climate-related impacts can cause physical damage to above and below ground infrastructure, affecting safety, reliability and repair times.
In recent years, we’ve seen many more examples of these particularly in Scotland. Storm Babet in 2023 is a dangerous example which led to deaths and destruction in eastern Scotland with washouts affecting our network. More recently, Storm Eowyn battered Scotland’s west coast.
By joining Climate Ready Infrastructure Scotland, we’re strengthening how we work with others – across sectors and regions – to protect our networks and ultimately better serve our customers. Being part of this forum will allow us to:
- Share critical data with other utilities and public bodies to help predict and plan for localised risks.
- Collaborate on joint solutions to shared climate threats affecting multiple types of infrastructure.
- Play a leading role in shaping long-term infrastructure resilience strategies and emergency response planning in Scotland.
We can make more impact when we work together, not just as an organisation, but as part of a wider infrastructure community that’s committed to preparing for and responding to the climate challenges ahead.
Thanks for reading,
Faye.