This response will depend on several factors including:
- The cost benefit analysis of different options
- Organisational risk tolerance
- The level of information available to inform decision
making
The city council is committed to addressing the consequences of
climate change by working alongside local partners and our
communities to prepare for the current and future impacts of
climate change.
Learning from the past
We have completed a Local Climate Impact Profile (LCLIP)
for our services. This looks at past extreme weather events across
the city up until 2012 and the impacts these have had on our
services and community. This is available to read:
Peterborough LCLIP
(1029KB, 27 pages)
Identifying where we are vulnerable
We have begun to look at the services we provide to determine
where we may be vulnerable to extreme weather events both now and
in the future. Some of the risks commonly identified when
undertaking this type of assessment include:
- Disruption to services during cold spells
- The health impacts associated with overheating
including risk of increase of infectious disease and food
poisoning during hotter summer temperatures and heat
waves
- Longer term damage to buildings and the transport network, and
uncomfortable living and working conditions with higher summer
temperatures
However, benefits may include:
- An increase in the number of visitors coming to the city to
take advantage of tourist attractions whilst enjoying warmer
weather
- The crops we are able to grow may change as a result of an
extended growing season
- There may be reductions in heating and gritting costs should
milder winters be experienced.
The next step after undertaking this work involved carrying out
a risk assessment of council services to ascertain areas of
vulnerability and to develop an action plan to ensure preparation
is undertaken. This process has enabled us to prioritise those
services most at risk and begin to implement options to adapt. This
is an ongoing process for the council and if you would like to find
out any more information please contact us and we would be happy to
discuss this in more detail.
Why should I adapt to climate change?
Climate change cannot be avoided in the short
term. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) greenhouse gases already present in the atmosphere will
cause global temperature to rise by at least 1ºC over the next
30-40 years and by as much as 4ºC by the end of the century. A
certain amount of warming is now unavoidable, due to gases that are
already present in the atmosphere. We are already seeing the
effects of this warming, and will continue to do so for years to
come. Adaptation is crucial to deal with the unavoidable impacts of
climate change to which we are already committed.
Planned adaptation is more effective than last minute, reactive
adaptation. Many impacts will result from extreme weather events,
such as floods or storms, rather than average changes in weather,
and these are difficult to predict far ahead. By the time you know
what is happening, it will be too late to protect yourself, and you
could face unexpected costs relating to business disruption,
reduced productivity and costs of repairing or replacing damaged
premises or equipment.
Adaptation is not cost-free, but planned adaptation is usually
less expensive than responding to an emergency or retrofitting to
cope with altered climate risks. Unlike mitigation,
adaptation could provide immediate local benefits
as adaptation measures could equip you to cope better with
current climate variability and extreme weather.
Increasingly, Government, insurers and investors are requiring
that climate change be taken into account in decision making. So
even if you think you are resilient to the direct impacts of
climate change, you may be forced to address the issue by political
and financial drivers. For example, due diligence requires
directors and managers to avoid damage that is reasonably
foreseeable. Evidence suggests that climate change is now
foreseeable.
Decision-making on the basis of historic climate is no longer
robust. Coping thresholds are often defined on the basis of past
experience. Given our changing climate, return periods for extreme
weather events as well as average conditions, are changing. If you
use historic data, you may be caught out. For example, if your
flood defences are based on flood magnitudes with a 1:200 year
frequency, and floods of that magnitude begin to occur every 50
years, you will not be adequately prepared.
Adapting For Tomorrow - Environment Agency report
(3967KB, 24 pages)
Climate Change Risk Assessment 2012
The Government published the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment
(CCRA) on 25 January 2012, the first assessment of its kind for the
UK and the first in a 5 year cycle.
The CCRA has reviewed the evidence for over 700 potential
impacts of climate change in a UK context. Detailed analysis was
undertaken for over 100 of these impacts across 11 key sectors, on
the basis of their likelihood, the scale of their potential
consequences and the urgency with which action may be needed to
address them
Find out more
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