Introduction

Some climate change is now inevitable and there is increasing evidence that it is already happening. Unless urgent, concerted global action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, further more dramatic changes may become unavoidable. This means preparing for changes to our climate is not an alternative strategy to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but a parallel and complementary one.

This strategy takes a risk-based approach to understanding the climate impacts today, and how these are expected to change through the century. The strategy provides a framework to identify and prioritise the key climate risks and then to identify who is best placed to work individually or collaboratively to deliver actions to reduce or manage these risks.

Scientists project that in the future the southeast of England will experience warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers. These changes will mean that London will face an increasing risk of floods, droughts and overheating (high temperatures). Without action to manage these risks, the impacts from the changing climate will increasingly affect the prosperity of the city and the quality of life for all Londoners, but especially the most vulnerable in society.

As this is the first adaptation strategy for London, many of the proposed actions aim to increase our understanding of the challenges we face, to ensure that we do not increase the risks in the future and that we have an emergency plan in hand in case the worst should happen. Successive reviews of the strategy will develop an ever more detailed plan of actions.

In parallel to the consultation on the content and actions proposed in this strategy, the Mayor would also like to hear from Londoners on what actions that they can take to prepare individually, or as communities, for the impacts of climate change. To add your ideas, or comment on other peoples’ ideas, visit the Greater London Authority (GLA) website at www.london.gov.uk/climatechange