Senior Analyst, Climate Change Risk Assessment (up to four positions)

at  Climate Change Committee

JOB SUMMARY

This position is based in London

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Climate Change Committee is the independent expert statutory adviser to Parliament and the UK Government on climate change policy. It was created as a key part of the long-term legal framework set out in the Climate Change Act (2008). The Act sets a long-term target for 2050 (Net Zero, a 100% reduction in net emissions from 1990) and requires that carbon budgets (five-year caps on emissions) are set on a path towards the long-term target. The Act also requires that the UK assesses and responds to the risks that it faces as the climate changes.
The CCC has established itself as a high-profile, high-impact expert body in the analysis of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Its reports can be accessed from the CCC’s website: www.theccc.org.uk The CCC is comprised of two Boards (‘the Committee’ and ‘the Adaptation Committee’) and an analytical secretariat. The Committees have a distinguished membership of leading experts from the fields of climate change, science, engineering and economics: www.theccc.org.uk/about-the-ccc/the-committee.
The Committees are supported by a Secretariat of around 40 economists, operational researchers, scientists and other analysts. The CCC was the first body of its kind in the world and brings together different strands of expertise from its members, from government, the research community and business. It draws on existing information and undertakes its own analysis to provide expert advice to Ministers and to Parliament. It is required to give advice to Ministers on climate change matters covered by the Climate Change Act and on an ad-hoc basis as and when requested.

SUMMARY

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) is seeking to recruit a high-performing senior analyst to join the team that’s leading delivery of the UK’s Fourth Climate Change Risk Independent Assessment (CCRA4-IA). This is the 5-yearly comprehensive assessment of risks and opportunities across the UK economy and natural environment from climate change. CCRA4-IA will deliver on the Government’s and the CCC’s ambition for a more quantitative, spatially explicit risk assessment with economics integrated throughout.
This cross-cutting role will lead coordination and integration of the sectoral analyses in the new, ‘Well Adapted UK’ report. This will use evidence from commissioned, pre-existing and other sources, lead in-house analysis considering trade-offs and co-benefits of adaptation and resilience measures with other policy areas and advise on establishment of resilience standards and security dimensions of climate risk.

JOB DESCRIPTION

CCRA4-IA is a much expanded and ambitious Climate Change Risk Assessment. The central CCRA4 team plans, coordinates and will deliver several outputs that comprise CCRA4-IA. The responsibilities for this team include:

• Planning the structure of the CCRA4 (including key audiences, approaches and framings) to best meet the demands on Government and wider stakeholders in providing the best decision-relevant climate risk information.
• Using a research budget and working with sector adaptation leads to commission, manage and deliver highly impactful quantitative research projects, with outputs including analytical deep dives into urgent risks, their projected change over time under different scenarios and the costs and benefits of interventions demonstrated to improve resilience. Also to draw from a wide range of public sources of data and peer-reviewed evidence.
• Conducting in-house CCC analysis on aspects of UK climate risk, often in concert with CCC sector specialist analysis teams.
• Engaging with relevant policy leads and stakeholders from across Government, including from DEFRA and the Environment Agency, to develop, test and communicate the CCRA4 emerging findings.
• Leading the production of key CCRA outputs, including writing a quantitative and evidence driven Well Adapted UK report, associated communication products and the CCC advice report to the Government on UK climate risks, as required under the Climate Change Act.
• Presenting (often on highly analytical topics) to a wide variety of internal and external audiences regarding the Committee’s advice. Regular internal presentations of working analysis to the Adaptation Committee for challenge and scrutiny by the expert committee members will also be required.

This role includes the following activities:
Leading coordination and integration of the sectoral analyses in the new, ‘Well Adapted UK’ report.
Coordination and working with sector adaptation leads to identify and commissioning up to 2-5 analytical and sectoral ‘deep dives’.
Lead engagement with Defra adaptation policy leads, to ensure analysis has high impact with key government and other stakeholders. Interact and regularly update DAs and key public sector stakeholders, e.g. Cabinet Office and government regulators.
Lead stakeholder engagement mapping and strategy for CCRA4-IA, coordinating with the CCC central communications team to ensure that the CCRA4-IA outputs have the greatest potential impact on key decision-making stakeholders.
Work with the CCC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion group, to ensure CCRA4-IA is compliant with the public sector equality duty.

Lead cross-cutting analysis, investigating:

• What resilience standards exist, their limitations and advice on the general characteristics of good, workable standards.
• Interaction, trade-offs and co-benefits of adaptation measures and other policy areas, focussed on a small number of potentially impactful case studies.
• UK security dimensions of climate risk.

Extensive collaboration with the climate adaptation evidence team in Defra is required, to ensure CCRA4-IA activities remain aligned to Government needs.
For this post we are looking for candidates with very strong technical, analytical and writing skills (for example those working in scientific, economic or operational research disciplines) backed by an ability to engage a range of stakeholders and communicate results in an insightful, compelling way. Expertise and previous knowledge and experience of working in climate risk analysis is highly desirable. These posts require a self-motivated, enthusiastic person with excellent stakeholder engagement and influencing skills.
Whilst this posts main responsibility will be related to the CCRA4-IA work programme, there will also be requirements to engage with and contribute to the wider CCC work programme, including a programme of advice on greenhouse gas emissions reduction policy across the UK.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The CCC office is based in Canary Wharf, London, with staff expected to attend the office for 40% of their contracted hours. The pay band for this role is £56,935 - £63,345 and the expectation is that the successful candidate will join on the minimum of the CCC G7 pay band.
We support a wide variety of working patterns such as compressed hours, hybrid working, part time hours, job sharing and flexi time. National pay bands may be used where staff apply to work from home for more than 60% of their working hours and live outside London. Regular attendance at our London office, for example for meetings and training, will still be required. The national pay band for this grade is £52,620 - £59,492.
The Climate Change Committee are committed to creating a workplace culture where all staff feel valued, supported and can develop their potential. We work hard to ensure all staff can flourish and succeed, working with and respecting people’s different backgrounds and personal circumstances. We encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply for this position. For more information on our EDI commitments, please read our strategy here https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/equality-diversity-and-inclusion/

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Please refer to Job Description

QUALIFICATIONS

• A degree in a numerate discipline (e.g. engineering, environmental science, economics) is essential. · The CCC has affiliation with the Government’s analytical progressions: GES, GORS, GSS, or GSR, and it is possible for analysts to maintain these memberships at the CCC. If you are a member of one of these professions, please indicate this in your application. We also welcome applications from outside these professions.
• Minimum of two years’ relevant experience, ideally including knowledge of climate risks analysis

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Specialist Analytical Skills

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,935, Climate Change Committee contributes £15,884 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

SELECTION PROCESS DETAILS

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.
Please refer to Job Description
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

Open to UK nationals only.

CCRA4-IA is a much expanded and ambitious Climate Change Risk Assessment. The central CCRA4 team plans, coordinates and will deliver several outputs that comprise CCRA4-IA. The responsibilities for this team include:

• Planning the structure of the CCRA4 (including key audiences, approaches and framings) to best meet the demands on Government and wider stakeholders in providing the best decision-relevant climate risk information.
• Using a research budget and working with sector adaptation leads to commission, manage and deliver highly impactful quantitative research projects, with outputs including analytical deep dives into urgent risks, their projected change over time under different scenarios and the costs and benefits of interventions demonstrated to improve resilience. Also to draw from a wide range of public sources of data and peer-reviewed evidence.
• Conducting in-house CCC analysis on aspects of UK climate risk, often in concert with CCC sector specialist analysis teams.
• Engaging with relevant policy leads and stakeholders from across Government, including from DEFRA and the Environment Agency, to develop, test and communicate the CCRA4 emerging findings.
• Leading the production of key CCRA outputs, including writing a quantitative and evidence driven Well Adapted UK report, associated communication products and the CCC advice report to the Government on UK climate risks, as required under the Climate Change Act.
• Presenting (often on highly analytical topics) to a wide variety of internal and external audiences regarding the Committee’s advice. Regular internal presentations of working analysis to the Adaptation Committee for challenge and scrutiny by the expert committee members will also be required