Strategy

The Mayor’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy

The Mayor’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy does three things:

identifies who and what is most at risk today
analyses how climate change will change the risk of flood, drought and heatwave through the century
describes what action is needed to manage this and who is responsible for it.

The key actions proposed in the strategy are:

To improve our understanding and management of surface water flood risk
An urban greening programme to increase the quality and quantity of greenspace and vegetation in London – this will buffer us from floods and hot weather
To retro-fit up to 1.2m homes by 2015 to improve the water and energy efficiency efficiency of London homes

Adapting to increased flood risk
The Mayor is working to manage, and where possible, reduce flood risk. To achieve this we will:

map who, what and where is at flood risk today
use climate projections to understand how climate change will affect the floods of tomorrow
work with the emergency services, utilities companies and other partners to make the most critical services in London flood-resilient
use greenspaces and plants to absorb floodwater.

Much of this we are already doing and shall continue to do in the future.

Safeguarding London’s water supply in a drought
The Mayor is working to make London more drought resilient and water efficient. To achieve this we will:

continue to work the four major London water companies to ensure that delicate balance between water supply and demand is maintained
help Londoners to use less water by installing water metres in homes. This will not only make the city more drought resilient but will save Londoners money
ensure that new development – especially social housing – is very water efficient.

Keeping London cool in a heatwave
The man-made materials that make up our city cause a major part of London’s overheating problem. The Mayor’s strategy to keep London cool is to:

‘re-green’ the city by using vegetation and green-spaces to provide shading, cooling and insulation. Not only will this help to cool the city and take the edge of heatwaves, but it will make the city a more beautiful and pleasant place to live
make sure that new development is designed for the temperatures of tomorrow and that mechanical cooling (e.g. air-conditioning) is only used where necessary.

Sustainability Appraisal of the strategy

The draft Climate Change Adaptation Strategy has been assessed for its potential impact on sustainability – wider environmental, economic and social effects – using a process known as Sustainability Appraisal.

You can read the appraisal - either in full or a non-technical summary - by downloading the documents below.

Climate Change Adaptation Strategy

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