Climate Change Adaptation Strategy

While we are blessed to have the green parks of London, we could be doing so much more. There is little stopping people making their rooves green other than planning and a lack of funding. If planning were to be relaxed to allow for green rooves and funding was supplied to create green rooves, not only would London be a more beautiful place, but we would signficantly improve the air quality and insulate our buildings better to less energy was needed to heat and cool them.PlanningI have heard stories of people waiting almost a year to hear on a planning application to convert their roof into green space, and even then failing. If planning regulations could be lightened on green roof conversions and the planning process sped up.FundingConverting roofs is an expensive business, needing steel supports and the materials themselves. While it would make no sense to fund the conversion, the purchase of vegetation should be subsidised by the Mayor of London.How Does This Help The Climate?Aside from the more obvious benefits of having more vegetation in the heart of London (i.e. oxygen content), having a green roof terrace can protect buildings from the extreme heat and also insulate from the cold. This in turn means less energy is needed to heat and air condition our buildings. Wildlife will be helped by the introduction of more green spaces. I therefore encourage the Mayor to look into these measures. Certainly Ken Livingston released a green paper encouraging the creation of roof terraces (<!-- .hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { font-size: 10pt; font-family:Verdana } -->http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/auu/docs/living_roof_statement.pdf) but to this day getting to this stage is hugely difficult.