Coping with the consequences of climate change
The planet is already experiencing the consequences of climate change. Climate threats, like flooding and heatwaves, are becoming more regular and this rapid environmental change poses a real threat to us all. In order to mitigate these events, we have to ensure that we have the infrastructure in place to cope with the effects of these extreme weather events.
What we are doing:
- Working with our partners to develop a multi-agency Resilience and Adaptation Plan to help us all minimise the effects of these extreme weather events.
- Identifying the areas most at risk of flooding and putting in appropriate defences.
- Creating initiatives to reduce water consumption, especially during the summer months when supply is likely to be low.
- Cooling down our city centre. We’ll be introducing a number of planting schemes which will make our city centre greener and will help keep it cool during heatwaves.
- Working closely with all our partners to ensure we minimise the risks of extreme weather on the most vulnerable
In the UK
- Severn Trent supplies 1.8 billion litres of water every day to 4.2 million customers. Unfortunately, businesses using high volumes of water would no longer be able to locate in Coventry as there would not be enough water supply.
- 77% of people think Great Britain is a wet and rainy country, and 72% believe we have enough water to meet our needs in the future, but this is sadly untrue (Statistics from the Great British Rain Paradox report).
- Climate change and population growth mean we could face significant water shortages in less than 25 years (Statistics from the Great British Rain Paradox report).
- If we fail to act on climate change, we will see an average temperature rise of 2.20°C by 2025, and 3.70°C by 2050 with a 2% drop in water availability by 2060.
- This slight increase in temperature could cause extreme weather events to become increasingly common, with more severe consequences.
