Climate Change Adaptation Report Round 4

4.1 Coventry’s Climate Change and Adaptation Strategy & Action Plan, developed in partnership with members of the independent Climate Change Board (which was recently approved by Coventry City Council’s Cabinet) references this document as the major focus for action on Adaptation and Resilience.  This in turn is also to inform the development policies for the City’s Local Plan and is also supported and relates to other significant policy and implementation documents such as ‘Local Flood Risk Management Strategy and Surface Water Management Plan’, ‘The Urban Forestry Strategy’ and will inform the City’s contribution to the WMCA’s  Local Investment in Natural Capital pilot programme where natural approaches which encourage biodiversity will be used to assist the enhancement of the city’s ability to adapt to change and be more resilient when facing further extremes in climatic events.

4.2 The City Council will be working closely with the Adaptation and Resilience Team in the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), who recently commissioned an Economic Impact Assessment of climate change on the economy of the West Midlands Combined Authority Region. This focused on the economic impact of three recent significant climatic events:

• Storm Doris Feb 2017  estimated costs £7,045,030
• The heatwave July and August 2022  estimated costs £11,805,340
• The flash flooding incidents in Summer 2023  estimated costs £2,791,130

4.3 Whilst there are estimates for costs to health, emergency services,  transport delays, service disruptions and lost business they are focused on the region as a whole and Coventry wishes to understand the costs to the City in order to assess the cost benefit in investing in certain proposed actions.  A hundred  people died across the region as a consequence of the two extreme heat periods with a value of life years lost (VOLY) being valued at £6,427,307 in total whereas a Value of Statistical Life (VSL) places a much higher estimate of around £228m for the period.  We know that the period of intense heat resulted in a number of increased call outs to wildfire incidents which cost the Fire Service an additional expenditure £10,037 during those two periods. The consequences are projected to be considerably worse by 2030 the WMCA area’s GVA would be £350 to 638 million a year with a significantly further reduction with a loss descending from £1.5 to 2.9 bn by 2050.

4.4 The WMCA commissioned the University of Birmingham to carry out a Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment CRVA for every ward across the region.  The data has a 100m resolution and each ward across the region was assigned to one of 5 risk categories and a climate risk and vulnerability assessment score for each.  Four wards in Coventry: Foleshill; St Michaels, Radford and Upper Stoke were assigned the highest score whilst Lower Stoke, Holbrook and Longford score as Medium-high. There is a close correlation between the exposure to risks and deprivation indices placing emphasis on the need to address the risks using a just transition approach.

Figure 2 Climate Risk & Vulnerability Assessment for WMCA area

4.5 The current and projected risks of heatwaves and flooding across the WMCA region as a whole

Current and projected climate change risks for the WMCA Region as a whole

4.6 The Coventry Adaptation and Resilience Pathway Group will work in collaboration with the WMCA on a set of key performance indicators and risk assessment measures linked to the scores of the CRVA Hazard and the 5 Vulnerability Layers (from Lowest to Highest) which are identified at ward level across the region. The following are the scores for Coventry:

4.7 As one can see from the above table, the key risks relating to Coventry relate to the absence of vegetative cover and its impacts upon the levels of surface heat on the health and well-being of the population, particularly upon those living in the disadvantaged areas of the City.