Climate Change Adaptation in Practice

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Climate Change Adaptation in Practice

• Simon Mills
• Head of Sustainable Development
• City of London Corporation

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Outline

• Why
• What
• Who
• How
• Next steps

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City of London

• Financial services in the Square Mile account for
  19 of Londons GDP, and a considerable
  percentage of UK GDP.
• The City of London Corporation provides Local
  government services for the financial heart of
  the UK, the Square Mile
• At over 800 years old, we are the oldest
  democratic institution in the country
• We own more than 2,700 operational and investment
  properties across six London boroughs.
• In addition to standard Local Authority Functions
  we run the City of London Police and provide Port
  Health for tidal Thames.
• Over 10,500 acres of open space- one third of
  Londons open spaces
• Third largest funder of the arts after the BBC
  and the Arts Council
• A very complex organisation

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The City of London and Climate Change

• Aware of and taking action of climate change
  since early 1990s
• Purchaser of green energy since mid 1990s
• Responsible for establishing carbon markets
• Leadership position - Beacon Council Status on
  tackling climate change
• First Local Authority to adopt a dedicated
  Adaptation Strategy

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Why Adapt?
God Help Us!
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The climate is changing

• Even sceptics agree, they just disagree about the
  cause
• Even we switch all the lights off today, we still
  have to deal with many decades of climate change.
• The debate may continue but every day without
  adaptation action will raise the cost- and
  investors and insurers are beginning to voice
  their concerns

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Legal Issues are Fast Emerging

• The effects of climate change can now be regarded
  as reasonably foreseeable and at every stage of
  infrastructure and service delivery it must be
  incumbent on professional advisors to ensure that
  appropriate steps have been taken.
• FUNDAMENTAL DUTY OF CARE

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What is an adaptation strategy for?

• Purpose- to ensure services and infrastructure
  continue to function in the face of climate
  change
• Outcomes- action orientated strategy, detailing
  practical adaptation measures and identifying
  knowledge gaps

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Actions to climate-proof the City of London
The City of Londons climate adaptation
strategy Produced by Acclimatise May 2007
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Climate Proofing the City

• Initiating research and monitoring impacts
• Climate-proofing our own policies
• Climate-proofing our own practices, assets and
  infrastructure
• Working in partnership with others to assist them
  in addressing climate adaptation, including
• Other utility and service providers in the City,
• City businesses,
• City residents,
• Other public sector bodies.

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Who Should be Involved?

• Ownership is essential
• Internal ownership of impacts and adaptation
  measures.
• -Frontline services
• -Support services
• External service providers
• Clients

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Climate Change is not just about polar bears, its
about people! Adaptation links to mitigation as
it makes climate change personal
Not everyone is ready to talk about climate
change but everyone is ready to talk about the
weather
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How should you go about putting one together?

• Risk Management Approach
• Based on Scientific Evidence
• Based on Practical Action
• Achievable
• Affordable
• Effective

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(No Transcript)
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1- Identify problems and Objectives

• What are you trying to achieve?
• Who are the key stakeholders and how will you
  involve them
• Are there any key decisions coming up (e.g.
  service review or infrastructure project) which
  are climate sensitive
• What are your timescales?

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2 - What are your decision making Criteria?

• What are your organisations / stakeholders
  attitudes to climate change?
• What constitutes acceptable risk? Are there
  legal, resilience or performance constraints?
• What do you control and what can you influence?

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3- Identifying Risks

• The Data
• Use local historic data (LCLIP)
• Use UKCIP predictions
• Consider how services and infrastructure will be
  impacted by wetter winters, warmer summers, more
  extreme precipitation, drought, heatwaves,
  sea-level rise etc)
• The Method
• Conduct a tiered risk assessment of direct and
  indirect risk factors
• Identify pathways and receptors
• Screen and priorities them
• Describe uncertainties
• The Priorities
• Long-term infrastructure investments
• Services/infrastructure that is already weather
  vulnerable
• Critical infrastructure/service contingency
  planning
• Human health/life
• N.B. Assumptions based on historic data are no
  longer valid!

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4- Identifying Options

• Do nothing? (This is valid if you have considered
  cost, consequences, probability)
• No-regrets/low regrets (good management e.g.
  addressing existing weather related problems and
  building flexibility into systems such as greater
  capacity drainage pipes)
• Win-Win (adaptation options that have value added
  e.g. green roofs have energy efficiency and
  biodiversity benefits)
• Flexible (options that give room for future
  action e.g. allowing for additional height to
  added at a later date to flood defences

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5 6- Appraising Options

• Do the options address the risks?
• How much will they cost
• Who owns them?
• What timescale will they be implemented over?

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7 8 Implementation

• Partnership and Influence
• Monitoring
• Review
• If you follow steps 1-8 you will achieve level 4
  of NI 188.

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Adaptation Measures by the City of London

• Pilot rainwater harvesting for washing surfaces
  and vehicles implemented at Spitalfields Market
• Mediterranean planting schemes with built in
  irrigation systems in City
• Sun safety advice, sunscreen and appropriate
  clothing for out-door staff
• Use adaptation checklist for new policies and
  projects
• Review of drainage and stream management plans to
  reduce flooding risk.
• Inclusion of green roofs within planning guidance
  for Square Mile.

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Next Steps- What Suffolk can learn from The City
of Londons Experience

• Treat climate change adaptation as a risk
  management issue- not a green issue
• Ensure that you have complete buy in from your
  own organisation
• Ensure that you involve your stakeholders- you
  cannot control every aspect of the services
  delivered in your locality
• Our Local Development Framework provided the
  primary vehicle for delivering many of our
  recommendations. However, it is important to
  consider how to climate proof existing
  infrastructure as well as future development
• It is not rocket science- use the process I have
  described above and you will have a functioning
  strategy. The key is in the implementation- we
  have built it into our performance management
  systems so it is now everyones responsibility to
  deliver

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Proof of the pudding..

• City of London Achieve level 2 of NI 188
• Scheduled to meet level three by March 2010
• Currently reviewing our adaptation strategy in
  light of UKCP09

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Conclusions

• The Climate is changing
• It cheaper to act now
• Many of adaptation options are win/win
• You have a duty of care
• The City of Londons Climate Change Adaptation
  Strategy is available to download from our website

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• Questions
• simon.mills_at_cityoflondon.gov.uk