Image credit: Richard da Costa The West of England Mayoral Combined Authority has launched its first Climate Adaptation Report (pdf, 4.6mb). This report sets out the practical steps we are already taking to adapt to a changing climate, and what more must be urgently done to raise ambition and accelerate action, where escalating impacts threaten our communities, businesses, and the economic prosperity of the region.
This is the first time that the MCA and other local authorities have reported to the UK government on how they are managing climate risk in delivering their public services. Local government, particularly combined authorities operating at a regional scale, have a crucial role to play in building the country’s resilience to climate impacts.
The impacts of climate change can sometimes be very visible through disruption caused by flooding to railway lines or major roads. Other impacts can be harder to see with heatwaves causing sleepless nights and lower productivity at work.
The West of England is home to many different communities who are all facing the negative impacts that climate change will inevitably bring. There will be common challenges but also differences in how these impacts play out across our region. From inner-city areas, to coastal communities and more rural villages, all of the region faces risks.
Many factors combine and influence how vulnerable local communities are to the impact of extreme weather events. These include where people live, their homes, health, and income alongside access to key services and support networks. Climate change worsens existing inequalities meaning the most deprived communities face the greatest risk from these impacts.
Image credit: ©Barbara Evripidou/FirstAvenuePhotography
View a full resolution version of the climate stripe
The Mayoral Combined Authority has been working with the Met Office to explore what climate change means for the region.
The West of England climate stripe shows how annual average temperatures have been rising steadily over the last 150 years. With each blue stripe showing a cooler than average year and each red stripe showing a warmer than average year (compared to an average year during 1981-2000). It shows that many of the hottest years have occurred in the past twenty years.
We need to adapt to these climate change impacts, building climate resilience across our places, infrastructure networks, our communities, public services, our economy, and our natural environment.
Climate resilience is another way of talking about how well people, communities, institutions, businesses, and the whole region can survive, recover, adapt, and grow in the face of a worsening climate.
Our natural environment has a key role to play in helping people cope with a changing climate and reduce its impacts. For example, planting more in urban areas can help lower temperatures and provide vital shade during hot weather. Other measures can help reduce the risk of floods by using small parks to temporarily store excess water or restoring rivers so they can carry more water during periods of heavy rainfall. These measures are called ‘nature-based solutions’ and have lots of benefits for wildlife but also wellbeing.
Residents are already taking action to adapt to our changing climate.
From getting prepared for bad weather by using the Met Office’s Weather Ready service and signing-up for weather warnings. Through to changing how they look after their gardens by collecting rainwater, helping local wildlife during heatwaves, and finding out how to protect their homes if they live in a flood risk area.
The Mayoral Combined Authority is committed to tackling the climate and ecological emergency by becoming a net zero carbon region and halting the decline of the natural environment by 2030. We also need regional resilience, by ensuring our people and economy are supported in adapting to the impacts of climate change.