The London Climate Resilience Review
The London Climate Resilience Review publishes interim report
Following the flash floods in 2021 and the 40 degree heatwave in 2022, the Mayor of London commissioned an independent review to take stock and make recommendations to guide London’s preparations for more extreme weather.
The London Climate Resilience Review has now published an interim report.
The Review gathered evidence from individuals, communities and organisations including the NHS, Transport for London, London Fire Brigade, the Metropolitan Police, Borough Councils, the GLA, UK Government, NGOs, the financial services sector, sports and cultural institutions.
The report sets out 20 recommendations which call for strategic, delivery, capacity building or investment actions. The Review has indicated high-level timeframes for recommendations.
Recommendations are directed to stakeholders across London, including the Mayor of London, UK government, local authorities and the community and voluntary sector.
The Review’s full report will be published later in 2024 and will include the Review’s full findings and complete set of recommendations. We are keen to hear any feedback on this interim report by 16 February 2024.
Contact: [email protected]
Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair of the Review, said:
“London has many good plans and programmes to prepare for climate hazards but we need to recognise that Londoners now face lethal risks, and a step change is needed. Last year was the hottest on record and this is causing chaos and disruption all over the world. London is not immune, as shown by the flash floods in 2021 and a 40-degree heatwave in 2022.
“I am really pleased that the Mayor has agreed to support an exercise to prepare for even more severe heatwaves than we saw in 2022. This is a positive step that will help London organisations plan to protect more Londoners in future shocks.
“In the absence of national leadership, regional government has a more significant role to play. We need pace not perfection. It’s time for the UK, led by its cities and regions, to take action and prioritise adaptation. That is an opportunity to make the UK economy more climate resilient, to protect the most vulnerable, to preserve all that we love about London and to show leadership to other cities nationally and globally.”
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said:
“I would like to thank Emma Howard Boyd, the Review team and everyone who has contributed to this Interim Report and its recommendations.
“Work led by City Hall and London Boroughs has long been underway to prepare the capital for the increasing frequency and intensity of climate risks, like flooding, heatwaves and drought. However, the harsh truth is that the increasing frequency and intensity of these events and a lack of action by the Government has left our city - and nation - vulnerable to extreme weather.
“I welcome these recommendations and have proposed in my latest Budget an additional £3 million to accelerate climate adaptation work in London. We will be looking at how we can take forward the recommendations identified so far and urging others, especially Government, to do the same.
“I can also confirm today that the London Resilience Partnership will carry out an exercise later this year to test London’s preparedness for a severe heat episode and that my green finance programme will begin work to consider how adaptation finance, including nature-based solutions, can be accelerated in early 2024.”
About the London Climate Resilience Review
Making sure London is ready for floods, storms, extreme heat and drought is important for national security and a chance to build a fairer society, improving all Londoners’ lives and livelihoods.
In the record-breaking 40°C heat of 2022, schools were closed, hospital operations were cancelled as systems crashed and wildfires caused the busiest day for the London Fire Brigade since the Second World War.
London is also vulnerable to flash flooding because of the large number of hard surfaces across the city. This affects homes and critical services such as hospitals, schools, and Underground stations.
The National Adaptation Programme sets the actions that government and others will take to adapt to the challenges of climate change in England. Adapting London to the increasing risk of climate change is a Mayoral priority. Significant work is already underway to help make London a more climate resilient city.
London has a range of Mayoral delivery programmes to support immediate action plus plans and strategies to support long-term planning for the impacts of climate change. These include The London Environment Strategy, The London Resilience Strategy and The London Plan.
As well as actions from the Mayor, London boroughs are also taking significant steps to help London and Londoners adapt to our changing climate. The London Councils climate programme includes actions to develop the resilience London needs to cope with the extreme weather events that come more frequently and severely with climate change. You can read more about their programme here.
Despite action, climate hazards are increasing in severity, frequency, and duration. As the climate changes we learn more about how we should prepare, and this affects our long-term decision-making. For example, London is well protected from tidal flooding by the Thames barrier and other flood defences. But sea levels are rising. Today, effective monitoring of sea level rise means we know the deadline for raising flood defences upstream of the Thames Barrier is 2050. This has changed from 2065 in the original plan that was published a decade ago.
In 2023 the Mayor of London commissioned an independent review to take stock and make recommendations to guide London’s preparations for more extreme weather. London is plagued by inequality and it is also one of the greatest cities in the history of the world, full of opportunity, innovation, and enterprise. The Review seeks to identify actions we can take to make full use of London’s strengths, ensuring the whole city is climate ready. It also aims to understand, in some cases, what is stopping those actions from happening already.
The independent Chair of the London Climate Resilience Review is Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair of the Green Finance Institute and UN Global Ambassador for the Race to Resilience and Race to Zero.
The Review has been provided with substantial evidence from national, regional and local organisations and communities who play interconnecting roles in London's day-to-day activities. Because of the volume of evidence provided the team have decided to produce an interim report followed by a full report later in 2024.
This shorter report features headline findings about key strategic opportunities and gaps in London's preparations for the impacts of more severe flooding, storms, extreme heat, drought and other risks. The full report and assessment of London’s climate resilience, as well as further recommendations, will be published later in 2024.
Evidence submitted to the Review has been considered by the team and will inform both the interim report and the full report.
Work on climate adaptation
London Environment Strategy, London Plan, London City Resilience Strategy, Transport Strategy
These strategies are the backbone of existing work on climate adaptation for the Mayor of London. The London Environment Strategy identifies climate risks and the policies and programmes to support delivery. The London Plan contains policies addressing many aspects of adaptation including around sustainable drainage provision, water efficiency measures, addressing flood risk, and managing overheating from new development.
Integrated Water Management Strategies
Delivered through the Infrastructure Coordination Service. To date, six local – scale IWMSs have been delivered in London Plan Opportunity Areas and one sub-regional IWMS has been delivered in East London.
Climate Budgets and the GLA Group budget
In 2023/24 the Mayor has required all GLA group bodies to identify climate adaptation projects and actions they are supporting through the budget process. The GLA is currently testing a decision making tool to take account of climate in decision making.
Strategic Surface Water Group
Following flash floods in July 2021, the Mayor used his convening powers to bring together organisations with statutory responsibilities around surface water flooding. Following this work a ‘Strategic group’ has been set up to develop a pan London strategy and implementation plan,
Thames Estuary 2100
GLA was a member of the Advisory group for the update and is now taking part in the Environment Agency’s delivery groups.
Climate resilience programmes through the green new deal
£24m for grant programmes for green space and climate resilience (such as Green and Resilient Spaces and the Green and Heathy Streets Fund). In addition the Future Neighbourhoods 2030 programme integrates climate adaptation actions in the two neighbourhoods and strategies of the ten additional neighbourhoods.
Climate Resilient Schools programme
£1.8 million programme supported by Thames Water and the Department for Education which received national recognition and is helping to identify and implement measures to tackle surface water flooding and heat in some of London’s most climate vulnerable schools
SuDS guidance and training
The GLA has funded and helped deliver SuDS training to over 300 TfL and borough highways officers to upskill them on how they can tackle surface water flooding through their projects. Guidance documents have been developed for key sectors including hospitals, schools, social housing, parks, retail and commercial.
Climate vulnerability mapping
London-wide climate risk maps have been produced to analyse climate exposure and vulnerability across Greater London. These maps were produced by Bloomberg Associates in collaboration with the Greater London Authority to help the GLA and other London-based organisations deliver equitable responses to the impacts of climate change and target resources to support communities at highest risk.
Building community resilience
The GLA Resilience team has been working with community and voluntary sector organisations to improve partnership working on resilience. As part of its programme, 11 projects in 11 boroughs will receive extension funding for local resilience projects focusing on climate resilience in particular.
Cool Spaces
The GLA has established the cool spaces map which helps the public find places of refuge during hot weather and summer heatwaves. Working with partners including boroughs and faith groups, 485 indoor and outdoor cool spaces available last summer during the extreme heat episodes.
Drinking water fountains
The Mayor has also partnered with Thames Water and the London Zoological Society to install a network of 138 drinking water fountains in busy and accessible areas of London which Londoners can access all year round and especially during extreme heat episodes. The Refill app that can be downloaded for free shows where the water fountains are located.
Overheating Audits for Care Homes
The Mayor’s Care Home Audit pilot has seen a further four care home overheating audits undertaken in London. They include simple recommendations to help care homes prepare for extreme heat events. University College London has secured £750k to scale up the approach nationally.
Tree planting
Following 2022’s extreme temperatures and wildfires, the Mayor pledged £3.1m for a new tree planting package to protect and future-proof London, in response to the impacts of climate change. The Mayor has also secured £3m from the government’s Urban Tree Challenge Fund to plant almost 8,000 street trees across 22 boroughs by March 2023, focusing on areas with low canopy cover and high deprivation
Infrastructure Coordination Service
The Infrastructure Coordination Service (ICS) has identified a potential opportunity to use existing utility works to enable the scaled delivery of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in London. Initial research led by the ICS in summer 2023 and funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Regulators’ Pioneer Fund has identified a potential market-based approach to enable the collaboration, scalability and efficiency needed to unlock delivery of SuDS at scale through existing utility works.
In November 2019, London Councils agreed a climate programme covers every area London needs to achieve net zero, which includes:
- Retrofitting our buildings to make them cheaper to heat and reduce their impact on the environment.
- Increasing the number of Londoners employed in the green economy.
- Ramping up local renewable power.
- Ensuring that all new developments have a minimal carbon footprint.
- Advancing low carbon transport.
- Working with residents and businesses to reduce their consumption-based emissions.
- Developing the resilience London needs to cope with the extreme weather events that come more frequently and severely with climate change.
London Councils has now launched their priorities for 2023/25 through the next phase of their programme to scale up delivery and ensure that London's boroughs' collaboration on net zero and adaptation moves from strength to strength. Further details can be seen on their website.
Image credit: Alisdare Hickson
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