The government’s recently published Environmental Improvement Plan makes nature-based solutions a key aim for managing heat in towns and cities, but does it go far enough? Samantha Deacon of Ramboll takes a look
The climate and biodiversity crises are posing particular challenges to urban environments, even as cities become increasingly significant population centres. Notably, the UN Population Fund estimates that by 2030, five billion people will be living in an urban environment.
The numbers put cities on the frontline for tackling these crises and make the need for cities that are liveable, including blue and green infrastructure, and promote climate resiliency. Equally important is the need for policy and investment choices to be coordinated towards achieving this transition.
Greener cities and the urban heat island effect
In 2022, the UK experienced the joint-hottest summer in recorded history, emphasising the need for infrastructure that cools cities, towns and streets. It is welcome that the government’s recently published Environmental Improvement Plan has made the use of nature-based solutions a key aim for managing heat, not least because this stands to deliver concurrent benefits for biodiversity goals and human wellbeing.
The urban heat island (UHI) effect has been reported to cause differences in temperature as large as 10C between central London and surrounding rural areas. The UHI is serious enough that it can cause fatalities, but it can also be managed through innovative urban planning. Notably, a study in The Lancet recently reported that 40% of deaths associated with UHI across 93 European cities could have been prevented by an increase in urban tree cover of 30%.
Accordingly, local planning authorities and community groups should understand how urban developments can worsen climate issues in localised areas alongside what can be done to mitigate those impacts.
Will the Environmental Improvement Plan go far enough to create green cities?
In the UK, talk of conservation and green spaces typically brings to mind Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), but we should broaden our ambitions for healthy green spaces. As urban areas become ever-more significant population centres, it is increasingly important to bring green spaces into our cities and, importantly, connect them together as a network.
Such green spaces have traditionally been discussed in terms of government expenditure but according to the recently released Environmental Improvement Plan, which builds on the existing 25-year Environment Plan, the government intends to take a different route. The Environmental Improvement Plan anticipates the burden of paying for green infrastructure being shouldered principally by private interests, as laid out by the Green Finance Strategy (GFS).
Private investment will be directed into green infrastructure that utilises and improves nature. The GFS is laudably ambitious in this regard, with a target of raising over £1bn. But the GFS is currently lacking in specifics and may be overly reliant on voluntary action.
The aims of the GFS must also be balanced with the UK’s other objectives. That is to say; the UK must still produce food, secure natural resources for manufacturing and generate energy and provisions to meet the demands of ongoing urban expansion. This is in addition to meeting biodiversity targets and building climate resilience.
A national strategy would maximise the benefits of urban green spaces
Another key goal of the Environmental Improvement Plan is addressing the fact that a third of people in the UK do not live within 15 minutes of a good quality green or blue space. If access can be increased, green spaces can provide myriad wider social and health benefits, ranging from reducing greenhouse gas emissions to improving gut health through contact with healthy soil.
The target will be measured against Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework (GIF), unveiled in February. This aims to embed five standards for new developments to extend nature-rich habitats and improve the connections between them, with the ultimate goal of enabling nature recovery by embedding nature into new developments.
Defra issued its Local Nature Recovery Strategy statutory guidance on 23 March describing what a local nature recovery strategy should contain, but how this will be achieved without a national strategic plan is not yet clear. Local authorities may not have the expertise to identify their nature-depleted areas. The effectiveness of green infrastructure also depends on how it is connected with existing protected sites in rural areas. Without strategic and protected connections, new green sites will not be able to function as species stepping stones or maintain representation across habitat types.
Still, if these challenges are significant, there are also solutions that can be put into place. Through dialogue and coordination between local and national government, along with private interests such as developers and community groups, carefully considered urban planning – that puts nature and greenspaces front and centre – can help ensure nature’s decline is reversed even while cities grow, benefitting both the climate and urban populations.
Samantha Deacon
Principal
Ramboll
Tel: +44 20 7631 5291
