Chapter 5 – Resilience and adaptation

5.1 Climate action, resilience and adaptation – key facts and sources of information

Toolkit chapters

5.1 Climate action, resilience and adaptation – key facts and sources of information

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How decarbonisation can increase resilience

Decarbonisation action can increase the resilience of communities and cities: 

  • To withstanding the impacts of climate change (including extreme weather events);  
  • To coping with future increases in energy prices; and 
  • To adapting to future changes such as a transition to electric vehicles. 

And, in parallel to decarbonising, councils needing to take action to make their communities more resilient to the changing climate.

Illustration showing actions to decarbonise which lead to increased resilience of communities and cities
Actions to decarbonise which lead to increased resilience of communities and cities include:
Increased ability to withstand impacts of climate changes, increased ability to cope with future increases in energy prices, increase adaptability to future changes such as transition to EVs and decentralised energy.

Key facts

  • The 2019/2020 winter flood and storm season, including Storms Ciara and Dennis, caused significant damage in many areas of the UK. Derbyshire County Council reported repair costs of £20m, higher than its annual road maintenance budget, while Rhondda Cynon Taf Council reported estimated damage of over £100m to public and private infrastructure.
  • Summer 2018 was England’s hottest ever summer with four heat waves resulting in over 1,000 excess deaths. Heat related mortality is projected to increase steeply in the UK. Heatwaves increase the number of visits to GPs and hospitals, calls to NHS and social care referrals. This leads to costs to health and social care providers, including councils, of £266 to £625 per patient per day. Some of these costs will fall on council budgets due to the roles and responsibilities for local authorities under the Health and Social Care Act. 
  • Vulnerable groups of people such as those affected by poverty, poor health and disabilities will tend to experience disproportionate negative effects from extreme weather and climate impacts such as flooding. 
  • Low-income households are eight times more likely to live in tidal floodplains than more affluent households.
  • Domestic energy costs rose steeply at the end of 2021 and are forecast to increase much more in 2022, following an increase in the energy price cap in April 2022 and in response to the crisis in Ukraine. It has been estimated that average household bills will increase by at least £700.  This will push large numbers of households into fuel poverty.

Accessing facts that relate to your area 

Source:

Government statistics

Description:

Renewable electricity installations by technology by local authority. 

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Source:

TBC

Description:

New dataset due Feb 22 from FoE/Mancheter Uni – risks/impact of overheating and flooding – shown by local authority. To be made open access

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Source:

Environment Agency

Description:

Map showing degree of flood risk (from rivers and sea, and from surface water) by place or postcode.

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Source:

Ordnance Survey

Description:

Ordnance Survey Green Space maps providing information on public parks, playing fields, sports facilities, play areas and allotments, along with access points for entering and exiting urban and rural greenspaces. 

Source:

Ordnance Survey and Jurys Inn

Description:

Percentage green space by cities; Jurys Inn has used the above data to rank UK cities by percentage of open space 

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