Committee on Climate Change

Alex Nickson works at the Greater London Authority where he manages Boris Johnson’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy. His role is to raise the awareness and capacity of London and Londoners to respond to the impacts and opportunities presented by climate change.  Previously, Alex worked as a Sustainability Manager for the Thames Gateway London Partnership.

1.      Why does London need  a strategy on adaptation? 

 The decision to develop an adaptation strategy for London came about because of a growing awareness at City Hall of the potential impacts of climate change on the city. One of the biggest challenges for London is in managing surface water flood risk.  It is more difficult to predict than tidal and fluvial flood risk, the risk management options are diffuse and require many stakeholders to work together, and lastly no single agency has responsibility for overseeing action. For this reason, the GLA set up the Drain London Forum to bring together everyone with the responsibility for and information on managing rainwater and drainage, and we have now secured funding to develop a surface water management plan.

2.      What are you doing to raise awareness?

We are raising awareness on 4 fronts: Firstly, in developing the strategy, we spoke to hundreds of individuals and organisations in order to prioritise climate change impacts and develop options for coping with these. This raised people’s awareness about some of the issues and benefits of taking early action.

Secondly, we asked people to post ideas and vote and comment on other people’s ideas on about what they would do to adapt their homes and communities to a changing climate, on an interactive website that we set up as part of a public consultation exercise. The website attracted over 7,000 visits, and we also used social media sites to reach a greater number of people.

Thirdly, we are working with the London Climate Change Partnership to encourage organisations in each of London’s key sectors to become adaptation champions.

Last, but not least, we work with the CREW Project (Community Resilience to Extreme Weather) to develop a range of messages  and advice specifically aimed at householders and SME’s.

3.       What simple measures can Londoners take at home to adapt to the impact of climate change?

There are a range of behavioural changes that people can make that cost nothing (and even save money) and a number of low costs measures that can be even cheaper if undertaken at the right opportunity (for example when redecorating, or replacing home appliances).The behavioural changes mostly focus around conserving water and keeping cool. Taking showers rather than baths, running full dishwashers and washing machines help to save water, whilst closing curtains on very hot days and opening windows on either side of a property to enable cross ventilation can help to keep homes cool. There is a rapidly growing market of low-cost fixtures and fittings – aerator showers, dual flush loos, water efficient white goods all provide as good quality of service as ‘normal’ appliances, but have the bonus of helping save energy too.

4.      What opportunities are there for businesses in London resulting from the GLA’s work on adaptation?

London must be seen as a safe and place to do business and invest in. The adaptation strategy shows that we understand our risks and that we are taking action to manage them – this makes London a safer bet than many of our economic competitors (for example New York, Tokyo, Mumbai). Building on this, London can position itself as the ‘adaptation capital’ of the world. Our position as a world financial centre means that we are well placed to provide the skills, services and financial products that the world needs to adapt. Lastly, at the buildings level, adaptation is a bespoke market. Most adaptation measures cannot be mass produced and even where they can be, they still have to be crafted to fit the individual building (for example shutters to keep cool in summer, or flood resilience measures) – this means that there is a huge untapped market out there.
Read the Mayor of London’s draft Climate Change Adaptation Strategy

The CCC will be publishing its first report on adaptation in the UK on 16th September