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Tag Archives: Climate Adaptation
A renewed focus for sustainability at the V&A
January 2021: Blog post by Sara Kassam, who has recently taken on the enviable position of Sustainability Lead at the V&A, “a role created to embed sustainability within the institution“. Sara highlights a number of important areas relevant to the scope of work of the V&A which she will be concentrating on (including sustainability in the fashion industry) – but great to see that V&A have recently joined the London Climate Change Partnership (LCCP), which focuses on key adaptation actions that the city must act on in response to climate change. Sara also rightly highlights that the sites the museum are located in will need to take into the climate action plans set by their respective boroughs – specifically Kensington and Chelsea, Tower Hamlets and Newham.
A particular interesting energy aspect around Exhibition Road is the heat and power infrastructure based in sites such as the Natural History Museum (more here – but paywall) and Imperial College – and the opportunity to further extend the network in the area.
Posted in News
Tagged Climate Adaptation, Community Heating, Kensington and Chelsea
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Climate crisis will cause falling humidity in global cities
8 January 2021: Report in The Guardian “Urban regions around the world are likely to see a near-universal decrease in humidity as the climate changes, a study has found. The research suggests that building green infrastructure and increasing urban vegetation might be a safe bet for cities looking to mitigate rising temperatures. Half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, but cities only account for about 3% of global land surface. Lei Zhao, a scientist from the University of Illinois and the lead author of the paper published in Nature Climate Change, says this has meant that previous climate models have not produced data specific to cities.” Unfortunately the Nature Climate Change article is only available to buy or through subscription. The Guardian article can be accessed here. A longer run through the article is available in Wired – Climate Change Is Turning Cities Into Ovens. The GLA published in 2018 an online London Green Infrastructure Map and a Green Roofs Map and a comprehensive list of policies to support the growth green infrastructure in the capital are set out in the Mayor’s 2018 London Environment Strategy.
Posted in News
Tagged adaptation, Climate Adaptation, green infrastructure
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Highgate Cemetery Climate change risk to famous resting place
11 December 2020: “April Cameron, a horticulturalist at the cemetery, says the trees are being hit hard by climate change. Extreme heat, flooding and winds are making them much more susceptible to disease and therefore collapse onto the graves, she says.” Read full BBC story here.
Posted in News
Tagged Climate Adaptation, Haringey
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COVID-19 provides lessons on climate adaptation for cities
9 April 2020: Link to an article on phys.org – one of a number which are bringing together some of the parallels between the impacts cities are facing as a result of the coronavirus crisis and likely challenges these urban communities will encounter due to increasing temperatures as a result of global climate change. This piece, by environmental lawyer Amy Turner (also senior fellow at Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law) includes some useful links to other thought pieces and research work in this area.
“I hesitate to draw early conclusions about the connection between global emissions, climate impacts and our current pandemic conditions. However, this is a moment of opportunity to marry the best of city climate policy and virus response. While big policy conclusions, connections and questions will continue to be debated, right now there are important observations to be made and potential lessons learned for city policymakers about overlapping approaches from past emissions reduction policies, current COVID-19 policy and future climate policy after the virus has subsided. This post explores some of these intersecting policy areas.”
Posted in News
Tagged Cities, Climate Adaptation
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Transnational municipal networks and climate change adaptation
April 2020: Paper published in the Journal of Cleaner Production
Volume 257, 1 June 2020. “Cities have increasingly recognised the risks posed by climate change and the need to adapt. To support climate action, cities have formed cooperative networks such as the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the Global Covenant of Mayors and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. However, a lack of scientific evidence exists when it comes to the actual impact of network participation, especially in the context of adaptation. This study is the first to test statistically the association between network membership and progress in adaptation planning in 377 cities globally. The results show that network members are more likely to have started the adaptation process than other cities, and that being a member of multiple networks is associated with higher levels of adaptation planning. Moreover, cities in wealthier countries are more likely to be more advanced in adaptation planning than others. We consider the possible explanations for these results based on the previous literature and information gathered from the networks. The main implications of our study are that network organisations should consider how to encourage the adaptation process among their members and the increased involvement of cities from lower-income countries.” Open access paper available here.
Waltham Forest the first Council to install the first permanent City Trees in London
31 December 2019: Interesting story issued on the last day of the year from Waltham Forest Borough announcing that it is to be the first council to have “permanently installed two City Trees in Leytonstone. CityTree is a free-standing outdoor air cleaning system that uses the power of biotechnology to emulate the pollution-reduction benefits of 275 urban trees.”
The press release goes on to provide some further detail on the CityTree, which is apparently a “… self-sustaining structure that contains a water tank, with automatic irrigation and plant sensors all powered by on board solar panels and batteries. The different types of moss bind environmental toxins such as particulate matter and nitrogen oxides while at the same time producing oxygen. Cutting-edge integrated technology can deliver comprehensive information on air filtering performance and status as well as environmental data on the CityTree’s surroundings.”
There’s no image of what this technology look’s like on the news release – but Westminster Council ran a pilot earlier this year – which includes a picture of what the CityTree looks like – which can be seen on AirQuality News’s website here, which also states the “technology has previously been trialled in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and Oslo. It is being supplied in the UK by green technology firm Evergen Systems.”
A blog on the Evergen website sets out some pretty remarkable results of 2018 field tests undertaken in Delhi, where it has also been installed. There’s not much detailed data at the moment that I can find out on the CityTree, but I’m sure the recently appointed Waltham Forest Climate Emergency Committee, which I sit on, will be examining CityTree at a forthcoming meeting.
Posted in London Boroughs, News
Tagged Climate Adaptation, Photovoltaics, Waltham Forest
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Understanding climate change from a global analysis of city analogues
July 2019: “Here, we test the extent to which the iconic cities around the world are likely to shift in response to climate change. By analyzing city pairs for 520 major cities of the world, we test if their climate in 2050 will resemble more closely to their own current climate conditions or to the current conditions of other cities in different bioclimatic regions”.
Read the full paper here.
‘Living wall’ could reduce air pollution by a fifth
November 2016: “A pioneering “living wall” created at a Grade-I listed Mayfairdevelopment could reduce local air pollution by 20 per cent, it was claimed today. The 80sq m wall has been planted with grass, flowers and strawberries and installed on scaffolding at the St Mark’s building in North Audley Street. Developer Grosvenor and engineering firm Arup devised the wall, which they claim could help to cut harmful emissions and spruce up streets undergoing major construction projects.”
Full Evening Standard article here. See earlier post on GLA ‘Green Capital’ study here.
Energy and Climate Questions to the Mayor
July 2016: This month Mayor’s Question Time included the following:
an update on a GLA study to evaluate the potential for the use trackside solar power production; Post Brexit, how the Mayor will use his role in the Brexit negotiating team to preserve the hard-fought environmental protections; the number of decentralised energy projects that are projected to come online this year; how the Mayor can encourage Londoners to switch energy suppliers; an estimate of the number of connections that will be provided with heat from the Beddington energy from waste plant to the Sutton Decentralised Energy Network (SDEN) – and whether Barratt Homes has signed a heat agreement with the plant’s operator, Viridor; whether the Mayor will respond to the Government’s recently released Energy Company Obligation (ECO) consultation;
work to encourage energy efficiency improvements in the private rented sector (PRS);
the RE:NEW home energy efficiency retrofit programme’s strategy over the coming year; the number of jobs linked to the green economy in London; the Mayor’s role with C40 Cities, and borough surface water management plans
Previous months questions to the Mayor can be found here.
Posted in News, Renewable Energy
Tagged Brexit, Climate Adaptation, Community Heating, Decentralised Energy, Energy Efficiency, Housing, Photovoltaics, RE:NEW, Sutton, Transport, Waste
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Future London Climate Risks Set Out
12 July 2016: The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) Adaptation Sub Committee (ASC) published a major new study today providing a detailed scientific assessment of climate change risks to UK. Further information is provided in the following press release, a summary synthesis report, which also links to the individual six sector chapters – which includes a chapter on ‘People and the Built Environment‘ (which is examined below)..
Below is a summary of some of the points most relevant to London from the synthesis report:
- Urban water management: climate change is expected to lead to significant increases in heavy rainfall, with sewers in many urban areas already at or over capacity. More action is needed protect individual properties whilst also beginning to redesign urban landscapes (such as through the use of sustainable drainage approaches) to be able to cope with more intense patterns of rainfall. [p32]
- At present, there are no comprehensive policies in place to adapt existing homes and other buildings to high temperatures, manage urban heat islands, nor safeguard new homes. The level of risk from overheating across the UK is unknown for hospitals, care homes, schools, prisons, and places of work. [p33]
- The urban heat island effect. UK planning strategies do not currently make specific recommendations for reducing the heat island effect such as through planning and urban design, beyond promoting urban green space. [p34]
- More action needed to deliver sustainable drainage systems, upgrade sewers where appropriate, and tackle drivers of increasing surface runoff (e.g. impermeable surfacing in urban areas). [p61]
- Climate-related hazards damage historic structures and sites now, but there is a lack of information on the scale of current and future risks, including for historic urban green spaces and gardens as well as structures.[p66]
- The action underway in London to assess and manage risks of overheating on public transport should continue, together with similar action as needed elsewhere in the UK. [p66]
Posted in Library, News
Tagged Buildings, Cities, Climate Adaptation, Health, Transport
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Urban adaptation to climate change
July 2016: A new European Environment Agency (EEA) study “Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe 2016 – Transforming cities in a changing climate” has just been published. The report examines whether action on adaptation has led to more climate-resilient cities and if not, what needs to be changed.
The EEA has a few references to work undertaken in London such as:
- “London is installing white panels on top of its public transport buses to reflect the rays of the summer sun and keep the vehicles cooler” (which refers to a 2014 article here). and that;
- “London held a workshop on adaptation indicators in 2015 but as of November 2015 had not yet decided how it will take the work forward” (it is not immediately clear which workshops this comment refers to).
No mention is made in the study to London’s authoritative Climate Change Adaptation Strategy from 2011 or the London Plan’s climate change adaptation policies. (NB Mayor Boris Johnson had committed in February 2015 to produce an update to the adaptation strategy sometime in 2015. Following the non-publication of this update, responding to a question a year later, he committed to the update being produced before his departure as Mayor (May 2016) – however, as yet, no update has been released).
New Ideas for London
April 2016: 
A further contribution of potential actions for an incoming Mayor – this time by Arup – in report just published ‘New Ideas in London‘. In the report Arup identify “five areas that the new Mayor should focus on during their first term in office.” Amongst these are a couple considering energy and climate issues – a summary of which follow below:
Driving down corporate carbon emissions
- The Mayor has the authority to help adjust London’s procurement protocols to include corporate carbon performance.
- The new Mayor could immediately commission a consultation led by the GLA’s Head of Legal and Procurement to investigate legislative options.
Electric bus battery switch scheme
- Could London work with existing suppliers to design buses that allow their batteries to be switched out quickly and smoothly without disrupting operations? This could take place at optimum points on the network and could ensure that operations are not penalised by the time it takes to charge bus batteries.
Other areas of interest include ‘A London Blue Grid’ and ‘Walking in a Green London’.
Posted in Library, News
Tagged Carbon Emissions, Climate Adaptation, Electric Vehicles
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