Experts make the case for adaptation

24Dash.com: The European Green and Blue Space Adaptation for Urban Areas and Eco Towns (GRaBS) project, led by the TCPA, has launched its first Expert Paper today at GreenBuild Expo in Manchester. Professor John Handley, Chair of the GRaBS Expert Panel and Professor at the Centre for Urban and Regional Ecology at the University of Manchester, said: “Climate change is already with us and the urban environment amplifies the impacts. Green and blue infrastructure has a substantial role to play in adapting our towns and cities to climate change and, as this paper highlights, policy responses are needed from an international and European level through to the national and local level.”

Speaking at the Greenbuild Expo conference, TCPA Energy Policy Manager Kate Henderson, the author of the paper, said: “This first GRaBS expert paper sets out the case for climate change adaptation and, in particular, argues that people or places facing poverty and disadvantage must not be disproportionately affected by climate change, or by policy or practice responses to it.”

“Adaptation means learning to live with more extreme weather events and changing weather patterns, and preparing for other changes that are unavoidable. To succeed under a changing climate individuals, organisations, and governments will all have to do some things differently. Through policy at all levels – international to local - there must be a clear consensus on the need for adaptation and climate change adaptation strategies must ensure decisive action.”…

Children playing in a water fountain in Oklahoma City, shot by Nils Fretwurst, Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License