About the job

Job summary

This position is based in London

Job description

Organisation Details  

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. In parallel the Act 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 analysts comprising a mix of economists, scientists and other disciplines. The CCC was among the first organisations of its kind 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.

Role Description

Summary

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) is seeking to recruit a senior analyst with adaptation expertise on a fixed term contract. This is a maternity cover for an existing role.

The primary focus (at least 50%) will be to deliver a programme of CCC international engagement and technical support on climate risk and adaptation. The role holder will also contribute to the delivery of the UK’s Fourth Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA4).

Job description

The role holder will be expected to deliver a programme of CCC international engagement and technical support on climate risk and adaptation. This is part of the ‘Expert Deployments’ component of the UK Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions (UK PACT) programme to support low- and middle-income countries, funded as part of the UK’s International Climate Finance. This work is undertaken in collaboration with an existing and parallel engagement role on mitigation at the CCC.

The role holder will also be expected to work on the 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. The senior analyst will work with the central CCRA4 team to coordinate and deliver several outputs that comprise CCRA4, with a focus on vulnerability and distributional impacts of climate risks in the UK.

On the international engagement aspect of the role, key duties are as follows:

• Promoting, coordinating and delivering CCC engagement and technical assistance with stakeholders in UK PACT countries. You will need to articulate the CCC’s expertise and experience and translate this into helpful, targeted proposals for a diverse range of countries.
• Drawing on expertise from across the CCC you will deliver engagements such as workshops, presentations, peer reviews and written advice/briefings, working both from the UK and via visits as appropriate.
• Working with colleagues in the FCDO’s PACT and Adaptation and Resilience teams, and UK Embassies to coordinate delivery of engagements. This includes managing, recording and reporting CCC engagement with UKPACT partners through approval forms, monthly reporting, and monitoring and evaluation exercises to capture delivered engagement.
• Developing and maintaining a pipeline of demand for further CCC engagement with PACT partner countries.

The part of the role which works with the CCRA4 team will include:

• Conducting in-house CCC analysis on distributional impacts of UK climate risk, often in concert with CCC sector specialist analysis teams to enable aggregation or cross-sector analysis where possible.
• Managing and delivering impactful quantitative research projects on distributional impacts of climate risk.
• Leading the production of key CCRA outputs, including a new tool to visualise vulnerability across the UK and planning the write-up of analysis on distributional impacts to sit within the Well Adapted UK report (due in 2026); 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.
• Supporting the delivery of key CCC outputs as required, including contributing to the COP-29 report (COP-28 report here) and Progress Reports (UK 2023 progress report here).

The post provides an excellent opportunity to lead high-profile and impactful work in an international setting. The postholder will work primarily to the International Team Leader, but with considerable interaction with the CCRA Team Lead and other CCC Team Leaders, the CCC’s Head of Adaptation and Director of Analysis, as well as the Chief Executive and Committee members. They will also work closely with UKPACT and other officials in FCDO and DESNZ.

For this post we are looking for candidates with very strong analytical, presenting and writing skills backed by an ability to engage a range of stakeholders and communicate results in an insightful and compelling way. This post requires a self-motivated, enthusiastic person with excellent influencing skills. The following is highly desirable.

• Expertise and background of working in climate risk analysis.
• Knowledge and experience of work in an international setting.

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 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.

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/.

The CCC cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. The CCC does not hold a Visa sponsorship licence.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

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.

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.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.