meeting reports

17 April Public Meeting report

CA-WN Exchange

21 Apr 2025 • 8 min read

This month’s meeting was slightly different to the usual format featuring an external guest speaker. Instead CA-WN’s Chair led an open discussion about climate adaptation risk – what are the risks to the residents and environment of our area from climate change and what should we be doing to prepare ourselves.

This meeting was recorded and is available on the CA-WN YouTube channel¹.

Present: Alison Barlow, David Garlick, James Hadfield, Jonathan Harris, Rupert Knowles, Mike Longman, Mick Lorkins, Harry Mellor, Dave Pearson, Clare Robertson-Marriott, Emmie Williamson, Jane Wood.

Apologies: Alexina Cassidy, Roy Hawkesford, Clare Slater, Maria Lee

Why Climate Adaptation?

Definition of climate adaptation (from Wikipedia):

“the process of adjusting to the effects of climate change, both current and anticipated”

Adaptation is an important topic which is often overlooked in all the focus on reaching Net Zero and decarbonising our economy. It is now clear to most people that climate change is real and is caused by human beings; furthermore the amount of greenhouse gas emissions already released into the atmosphere mean that we cannot avoid being impacted by the resulting changes in climate.

Attendees were asked for their views on climate adaptation – points raised included:

Many people are still in the climate denier camp, including some geologists who argue that similar changes have happened before, overlooking the fact that this time the changes are taking place over decades rather than millennia.
Practical need for adaptation e.g. changes in agricultural productivity vs ‘deep adaptation’ – the psychological aspects of adaptation, which requires deep acceptance and finding community
Inequalities in the ability to adapt – some can afford to install air conditioning for example – those who can’t are more likely to suffer health effects of heatstroke
Building resilient communities requires inequalities to be addressed – this needs political discussion and action by the council, possibly in conjunction with neighbouring regions, to drive action to address inequality at a local level. Training should be provided to ward councillors on the need for resilience and how to protect people
Bio-regionalism – getting to know the geography etc of one’s own area - is very linked to adaptation
Managing the impacts of climate will require a collaborative effort and authorities need to start preparing for that
The Russians seem to be seeing climate change as an opportunity due to the warming up of the Arctic resulting in the northwest passage being open for longer and currently uninhabitable parts of Russia becoming liveable
Expectations of an ever-increasing standard of living are unrealistic and those who have more must learn to share. Migration will be a significant factor driven by land becoming uninhabitable. This needs to be dealt with proactively and collaboratively
The government does not appear to have an adaptation policy – the coastal policy appears to be one of managed retreat, so there should be restrictions on building within a certain distance of the coast where it is vulnerable to erosion

Why risk assessment?

Carrying out a formal climate risk assessment in a 75 minute meeting is impractical but it is still useful to think about climate adaptation in a risk context. This provides a framework for identifying and prioritising the risks associated with climate change.

Definition of risk from the UK Climate Change Committee:

“the process of adjusting to the effects of climate change, both current and anticipated”

Overview of the risk management process:

Identify risks in a structured way using risk categories
Assess the risks, this is normally done by ranking risks according to likelihood and impact. Obviously the risks you need to focus on first are the high likelihood, high impact ones. The assessment step includes looking at what is already in place to manage the risk
The next step is to take additional actions where needed; these would aim to either reduce the likelihood or the impact. You could for example implement some of the Natural Flood Management measures discussed at our March meeting by Alan Ryan and Sarah Parry from the RAIN project. You can’t cut the chance of having a very heavy downpour, but you can take steps to reduce the level of damage that it causes.
Once actions are in place, the risks must be monitored to track the effect of actions being taken
This is an iterative process, so risk identification is repeated regularly to check for any new risks and review the status of existing ones.

What might life be like in our area in 5, 10, 15 years’ time with a changed climate and what can we do to prepare ourselves for that?

UK Climate Risk Assessment²

The most recent UK Climate Risk Independent Assessment was published in 2022 (required to be produced every 5 years).
It includes an assessment of 61 risks. They are rated according to the level of urgency of action required within the next 5 years – all the risks are considered to be inherently high, but the rating depends on the effectiveness of management actions already in place.

Alongside the national risk report is issued a toolkit for local authorities³ to carry out a similar assessment of climate risks – if this hasn’t been done for WN it would be worthwhile.
The Met Office provide a set of data showing how the climate might be expected to change across the UK under different levels of global warming⁴.

The Basics of Life

To help focus this discussion, the effects of climate change are being considered in terms of the impact on the basics of life – Air, Water, Food and Shelter (or Housing).
How will these be affected by climate change and what adaptive actions can we take?

Air

We need to consider natural pollutants such as pollen as well as human-generated ones – there is more pollen and this may be added to by new species moving north.
The warming oceans are affecting the aquatic ecosystems which absorb carbon, and we may also see reduced levels of atmospheric oxygen⁵
Air pollution is gradually dropping as older, more polluting vehicles are replaced by cleaner newer models
The levels of atmospheric CO2 are gradually increasing, from 300 ppm (parts per million) 50 years ago outdoors to around 420 ppm today. As a roomful of people breathe normally they increase indoor CO2 levels. Researchers have found that airborne viruses survive longer as CO2 concentrations rise⁶. Consequently, unventilated indoor spaces present a threat to public health. As atmospheric CO2 levels continue to increase there will be a greater requirement for public buildings to be mechanically ventilated. The drive for airtightness and energy efficiency needs to take into account ventilation.
Blocking weather patterns, when local high pressure stops normal changes in weather, prevent polluted air from being dissipated presenting a danger to vulnerable people.
Hospitals and care homes are not well designed to be comfortable during heatwaves
Dry weather results in a lot of dust in the air
Potential actions include:
- Green infrastructure to reduce pollution
- Enforce building regs to improve ventilation
- Better monitoring of indoor air quality

Water

We are seeing more frequent flooding of properties in West Northamptonshire – there is a risk that householders are unable to obtain insurance at an affordable price as has already happened in parts of the USA and Australia
There were plans in the 1980s to put in place infrastructure to move water around the UK from wetter to drier areas. There is now a project proposed to shift water from north to south using the Grand Union Canal (Grand Union Canal Transfer).
Installation of tanks to collect grey water for reuse should be mandated for new build properties.
Impact on agriculture of both water shortages and excess rainfall during some months making it impossible to plant crops. Possible solutions include agro-forestry – where crops and trees are planted togetehr (though trees take up a lot of water as well as providing shade). Complementary planting such as the Three Sisters method is another solution⁷. Moulton College are now teaching regenerative agriculture including planting trees and crops alongside each other dependent on the specific locality.
The risk of surface water flooding is now higher, whereas previously the main risk came from rivers bursting their banks
Impact of energy, transport and comms failures on water infrastructure
Higher risk of subsidence causing burst pipes
In the UK it’s a question of storing and distributing water as we don’t have an overall shortage. At a local level this can include water butts even on commercial buildings.
Potential actions include:
- Implement Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS).
- Natural Flood Management including green infrastructure in urban areas
- Consistent indicators of flood risk resilience
- Better monitoring and information
- Water Resource Management Plans – proposals include desalination and water recycling schemes
- Households reduce water consumption
- Reduce leakage
- Use of porous materials (including grass) instead of paving

Food

Disruption to agriculture and food supply chains has the potential to impact food security. There is official advice that people should keep a supply of non-perishable food and water to use in case of emergency. However, with increased use of food banks, it isn’t realistic for everyone to keep a stock of surplus food, plus this is will require effective stock management which would be better done at a larger scale.
Risk of pests, pathogens and invasive species
Climate change overseas could affect UK food security and safety
An increase in people growing their own food would help but not replace the volume of food supplied by supermarkets.
It may be necessary to accept that the choice and abundance of food we currently enjoy isn’t sustainable; that the vision of maintaining current ‘developed world’ lifestyles in a decarbonised world isn’t realistic. People need to learn to adapt to what’s available.
Large retailers no longer maintain significant stocks of food. A recent report on food security⁸ included in its recommendations moving from a ‘just in time’ to ‘just in case’ food system. No one wants to see more warehouses but if supermarkets were required to hold contingency food supplies, these would need to be stored somewhere.
Shortages in shops are triggered by some people buying more than usual, as the shelves are stocked according to normal patterns of consumption. This type of overbuying needs to be controlled.
Can owners of land in urban areas be supported to make this available for growing food – there is not consistent availability of allotments in all areas.
What we eat is important – a lot of land is used to grow food for cattle for people to then eat the meat.
Potential actions include:
- Sustainable soil policy initiatives
- Precision farming technology
- Integrate adaptation & mitigation strategies and planning
- Improved bio-security and monitoring
- UK Food Security Index (introduced 2024)
- Protect groups vulnerable to food insecurity
- Pest resistant varieties and diversification

Housing

We did not have time to cover Housing in the discussion, but hope to pick this up at a later date.

Conclusions

Local planning function needs to be revised to have much better focus on adapting to the effects of climate change.

CA-WN has an important role to play in terms of education and information, as well as challenging those in authority to do better. Perhaps we could organise a climate adaptation event.

AOB

The West Northamptonshire Sustainable Food Network is organising a Food Summit on 3 July – please get in touch if you are interested in attending.
The West Northamptonshire Climate and Nature has an Adaptation workstream – again please get in touch if you’d be interested in joining this.

Dates of next meetings

Thursday May 15 - Natasha Ginks from https://www.renovategreen.co.uk/ and Cosy Homes Oxfordshire
Thursday June 19 - Bruce Durham from Harborough Woodland Community Volunteers, on "Climate Action through Woods, Water, Wildlife and Wellness to reduce flood risk"