The South East is one of the UK regions most at risk from climate change. So, while the United Nations meets in Copenhagen to discuss the global approach to our climate's future, here we look at some of the measures being taken in South East England.

Recent projections suggest that summer temperatures in the South East will rise by around four degrees by 2080 and that winter rainfall will rise by 22%. It never makes for easy reading, but it is something we must all get to grips with.

“Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing society today,” warns Hilary Benn MP, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in Adapting to Climate Change in England.

The extent of the challenge means the issue is relevant to almost every aspect of the Partnership Board’s work. Our associated boards – which advise on housing and regeneration, transport and economic development – all have a responsibility to help the South East address the issue; whether by guiding new development away from flood zones, for example, or by encouraging investment that enables more people to leave their car at home.

The task for the Partnership Board now is to bring the region’s economic and spatial strategies into line with more recent Government guidance, including the Low Carbon Transition Plan and the Carbon Budget, as it produces a new strategy for South East England that looks ahead over the next 20 years.

Climate change and the economy

From the economy’s perspective, climate change could present the South East with an opportunity. By investing in low carbon and environmental technologies, we could not only limit our impact on the climate, and its impact on us, but also support economic growth.

“Long-term regional economic prosperity can only be secured through the principles of sustainable development,” notes the South East England Development Agency in the Regional Economic Strategy. “This means recognising that pursuing growth within environmental limits can create new opportunities for innovation and competitiveness.”

To succeed here, the region – which already has one of the country’s most educated workforces – will need to improve its skills base. The expertise that will help us limit and adapt to a changing climate is still relatively rare, and initiatives like the SEEDA-backed Institute for Sustainability in the Thames Gateway – which is already developing low carbon construction techniques – will be increasingly important in years to come. To this end, environmental technology is now one of six key sectors SEEDA is focusing on.

Planning for climate change

The region’s spatial strategy, the South East Plan, is equally clear about the need to tackle climate change. The strategy aims to reduce “the region’s carbon dioxide emissions by at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2010, by at least 25% below 1990 levels by 2015 and by 80% by 2050”. The measures it proposes include:

• Improving the energy efficiency and carbon performance of new and existing buildings and influencing the behaviour of occupants
• Reducing the need to travel and ensuring good accessibility to public and other sustainable modes of transport
• Promoting land use that acts as carbon sinks
• Reducing the amount of biodegradable waste landfilled
• Encouraging the development and use of renewable energy.

When you look at these goals in light of SEEDA’s work, the economic opportunities are evident. And many areas of the South East are already considering economic growth alongside the needs of the environment, such as the eight ‘diamonds for investment and growth’ outlined in the Regional Economic Strategy.

Adaptability

The South East’s regional strategies also recognise that simply reducing emissions is not enough. Even if we stopped producing all greenhouse gases today (as the Low Carbon Transition Plan points out) there are enough in the atmosphere already to affect our climate. This means investing in measures, such as flood defences, that will help us limit any damage the climate may cause.

To help us adapt, the South East Plan proposes to:

• Guide development to locations that offer greater protection from flooding, erosion, storms, water shortages and subsidence
• Ensure new and existing building stock is more resilient to climate change impacts
• Incorporate sustainable drainage measures and high standards of water efficiency in new and existing building stock
• Increase flood storage capacity and developing sustainable water resources
• Ensure that opportunities and options for sustainable flood management and migration of habitats and species are actively promoted.

Investing in our future

Achieving this will be a challenge made harder by the constraints of the current economic climate. But as Sir Nicholas Stern illustrated so starkly in his report on the economics of climate change, prosperity and environmental sustainability are now so closely linked that any costs we cut today will only leave us poorer tomorrow.

“Experience shows that well planned action will reduce costs for individuals, businesses and the public purse”, Benn continues. Which is, of course, where the regional strategy comes in.

“There are many low and no cost measures to avoid the impacts of climate change that can be, but are not always, used. If we build new homes, schools and hospitals now that can cope with the very high summer temperatures we can expect in 20 years time, this will be far better and cheaper than rebuilding or re-engineering later.”

Further reading:

• UN Climate Change Conference 2009
• Regional Sustainability Framework
• Climate Change Guide for Local Development Frameworks
• Reducing South East England’s Ecological Footprint – A Route Map 
• Committee on Climate Change
• OVESCO
• The Greening Campaign
• SEEDA and the Green Economy