EIR - Climate Crisis Impacts [Feb 2023]

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the impact of the climate crisis on Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities in London.

Specifically, I would like to request the following information:

Any studies, reports, or other documents that have been produced by London Assembly or any other public body regarding the impact of the climate crisis on BAME communities in London.

Any data or statistics that has been collected on the impact of the climate crisis on BAME communities in London.

Any policies, programs, or initiatives that London Assembly or any other public body has implemented or is planning to implement to address the impact of the climate crisis on BAME communities in London.

Response

Please find below and attached the information we hold within the scope of your request.

The Mayor identified climate change as a matter of social justice in his 2021 manifesto (Sadiq for London, 2021), and pledged to tackle the inequalities that make Black, Asian and minority ethnic Londoners more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The London Recovery Board, chaired by the Mayor of London and the Chair of London Councils, set out a programme for the capital’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that seeks to build back better and make London a fairer, more equal, greener and more resilient city. The Green New Deal Mission of the London Recovery Programme is now tackling these inequalities and inequities, including moving towards the Mayor’s ambition for no Londoner to live more than a 10-minute walk from a green space.  

Green infrastructure – data or statistics

The impacts of climate change are unevenly distributed across the city, with neighbourhoods with income and health inequalities, and high concentrations of vulnerable populations, including Black, Asian and minority ethnic at greater risk.  Half of London’s households are in areas of deficiency of access to green space, with Londoners on low incomes and Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) Londoners much more likely to live in these locations. Research shows that 21 per cent of households in London lack access to a private or shared garden; and across England, BAME people are less likely to have access to a garden than White people.  See: One in eight British households has no garden - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

A series of London-wide climate risk maps (https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/climate-risk-mapping ) have been produced to analyse climate exposure and vulnerability across Greater London, including identifying locations where Black, Asian and minority ethnic Londoners are more vulnerable to climate change impacts. These maps were produced by Bloomberg Associates in collaboration with the Greater London Authority to help the GLA and other London-based organisations deliver equitable responses to the impacts of climate change and target resources to support communities at highest risk. The maps have been used to prioritise projects in many of the Mayor’s grant funding programmes, including those set out below. 

The following Mayoral funding programmes aim to enhance green and blue spaces for climate resilience in locations with high climate vulnerability, which includes places with higher populations of Black, Asian and minority ethnic Londoners:

The Green and Resilient Spaces Fund funds large-scale, innovative enhancements to green and blue spaces and the wider public realm, prioritising projects in locations with higher climate risk to vulnerable communities including Black, Asian and minority ethnic Londoners.  The first round of the Fund awarded £4m of funding in March 2022 to 19 projects (six project grants and 13 development grants) and when complete, will create over 57 hectares of improved public green space and almost 2.5 hectares of new public green space in areas of highest risk for London’s most climate vulnerable communities. A £3.8m second round of grants is currently open for applications and will support further projects to help address these disparities by improving access to green space for Londoners who currently benefit less from the capital’s green infrastructure, engaging them in the co-design of projects, and helping to support climate resilience in locations where there is high exposure and vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.  

The £2m Grow Back Greener Fund supports smaller scale community-led projects, supporting London's communities directly to plant trees to provide shade, create and enhance green and blue spaces and increase climate resilience. The latest round of funding prioritised projects that were in areas where Londoners live further than a 10-minute walk from a green space, areas with low tree canopy cover, areas with high exposure and vulnerability to climate change and projects led by BAME groups.

The £3.1m Trees for London programme is supporting tree planting to protect and future-proof London, in response to the impacts of climate change, targeting areas where there are low numbers of existing trees and where Londoners are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including Black, Asian and minority ethnic Londoners.

The Mayor is also supporting the London Wildlife Trust-led Keeping it Wild programme focused on engaging young people in nature-based programmes who are typically under-represented in the environmental sector, with 76% of young people coming from Black, Asian or minoritised ethnic heritage.

Studies, reports

Lower income and Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups continue to be some of the worst affected by environmental impacts, such as fuel poverty, air pollution and climate change, as well as being disproportionately affected by Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis.

• Ethnic minority groups disproportionately live in areas with higher levels of air, noise and light pollution, lower levels of green spaces, and higher exposure to urban heat island effects. (Centric Lab Report, 2020)
• London has the third-worst fuel poverty level of any English region at 15.2% (521,000 homes). Barking & Dagenham has the worst fuel poverty in England (22.5%) and Newham remains high (21.7%). Ethnic minority households are 35% more likely to be fuel poor than white households (BEIS Fuel Poverty Tables 2021).
• PHE state that individuals from BAME groups are more likely to live in overcrowded housing, work in occupations with increased exposure to COVID-19 and use public transport to travel to work; as well as being impacted by longstanding social and economic inequalities. (PHE Report, 2020)
• People living in parts of London with high income deprivation, and high proportions of black, mixed or other ethnic groups are disproportionately affected by air pollution.(GLA Report, 2017).
• Children from BAME groups and lower-income groups are less likely to frequently visit the natural environment. (Natural England Report, 2016)
• Research document from the GLA’s Information Services (2020)