What is climate resilience? We all know the term, but in practice what is the implication for developments and buildings?
The question has been answered in the UK by the Better Buildings Partnership (BBP), a grouping of developers leading the way on energy efficiency, for real estate companies that are signatories to its Climate Commitment, in a new guide prepared by the BBP’s Climate Resilience Working Group and co-created with BBP members. It combines existing industry guidance with BBP member best practice case studies to set out how to define, measure and report on climate resilient real estate portfolios.
The potentially catastrophic effects of climate change are already apparent so it’s important for property owners to integrate climate resilience into their business strategies.
According to the UK Meteorological Office, in the future there is likely to be more extreme weather, including sudden, intense downpours and heatwaves, warmer, wetter winters and hotter and drier summers. Resilience is partly about preparing for this likelihood.
Other definitions of climate resilience
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change defines resilience broadly as the “capacity of social, economic, and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity, and structure, while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning, and transformation”.
A further definition from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Climate Action Pathway on Climate Resilience highlights the interdependence of people, businesses, systems and infrastructure in delivering climate resilience.
The BBP definition of climate resilience
The BBP definition of climate resilience for real estate companies synthesises these and others by asking businesses to:
- mitigate the worst impacts of climate change by becoming net zero carbon before 2050
- adapt to operating in a world in which climate-driven disruption is more frequent and severe
- disclose their climate related information to investors, regulators and other stakeholders in a useful and timely way
These three pillars of effective action (mitigation, adaptation and disclosure) are explained in the guide.
Climate change mitigation
This means having a plan to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change by reducing the impact of carbon emissions to net zero. The decarbonisation of portfolios and corporate activities, including the value chain, builds climate resilience in several ways:
- reducing the likelihood and severity of physical climate impacts on buildings and value chains which pose a threat to normal operation
- reducing the likelihood that tighter regulatory restrictions such as carbon taxation will affect competitiveness
- increasing attractiveness to prospective investors, financiers and employees – this builds resilience by widening access to capital, markets, customers and skills
Climate change adaptation
A climate-resilient business will have adapted to operating in a world in which climate change-driven disruption is more frequent and severe. This builds climate resilience in several ways:
- by anticipating the likely climate impacts, the business may be better able to prevent major financial losses and prevent damage or harm to people or the environment
- by anticipating the likely market disruptions driven by climate change (or the response to it), the business may be better able to manage risks and capitalise on opportunities
- depending on what action you take, climate adaptation can you offer other benefits such as improved biodiversity, social value and quality of space
Climate change disclosure
A climate-resilient business provides climate-related information to investors, regulators, and other stakeholders in a useful and timely way. This builds resilience by:
- giving confidence to stakeholders who make decisions based on judgements concerning the resilience of the business including financiers, lenders, investors and other stakeholders
- providing an important source of information for third party index providers and assessors who analyse and benchmark business performance and potential
- supporting the long term viability of real assets to investors, including how it affects other stakeholders such as occupiers and communities who are affected by them
UK climate resilience program
The UK already has a general Climate Resilience Programme which is about researching services, standards, guidelines and codes of practice that is currently intended to last for four years.
There is a particular focus on health because extreme heat or an extreme cold is dangerous especially to people with other health conditions.
In keeping with its laissez faire policy, the ruling Conservative party merely provides information, it does not practice what it preaches, or legislate on the matter, so it is difficult to work out how many businesses are taking this advice.
However the Programme, which is managed by the Department of Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, the Meteorological Office and the UK Research and Innovation Office, runs regional workshops and has prepared advice for different sectors including tourism and churches.
A major theme is the evolution of climate services and their delivery. This focuses on using climate risk quantification to develop and evaluate climate service pilot services.
This helps to better understand how to use the latest climate science research in real-world applications, and what will be needed from the core climate science in the future.
The learning will also be used to create a framework for UK Climate Services.
The initial areas of focus are: urban climate resilience, coastal resilience, water supply resilience, health resilience, transportation and energy generation/supply.
Different areas need a different treatment
Different parts of the country will need to adapt in different ways. The City of London Corporation already has a plan 4W from 2020 to 2027 which looks in particular at how it can use and protect its underground spaces, utilities, and green spaces.
This part of the English capital is particularly vulnerable in the longer term to sea level rise, in common with much of central London. It is only sheltered from the worst storm surges by the London tidal barrage, now 40 years old, which now protects 1.42 million people and more than £321 billion ($AU546) of property.
The Thames Estuary 2100 Plan, which is monitored every five years, looks at progressively investing in adapting the flood defences according to how likely it is that the vulnerable area will be flooded.
A large area in the Thames estuary is at risk of storm surges. These occur when intense storms happen at the same time as high tides. By the end of the century these are predicted to be annual events.
The plan was supposed to have been updated this year, but the government is only just consulting on it.
Back to the BPP. At the launch of the new guide, its chief executive Sarah Ratcliffe, said: “As science predicts that keeping within 1.5 degrees warming looks unlikely and real-life events demonstrate the impact of climate change, the need for property owners to develop comprehensive climate resilience strategies could not be more pressing.”
The lives of millions of people may depend upon it.
