Addressing the effects of climate change on vulnerable low-income families
Across Coventry, more and more people are feeling the pressure from the increasing cost of living thanks to an increase in fuel, energy and food prices. As the planet’s natural resources dwindle and extreme weather effects become more common, these pressures will be amplified.
These pressures will affect everyone, but they’ll have a massive impact on the most vulnerable. As a result, we must work with all our partners to address the crisis and tackle the inequalities in our communities.
What we are doing:
- Supporting the development of food growing areas in the city.
- Teaching our residents, the skills needed to grow and cook affordable local produce.
- Promoting the benefits of energy efficiency in the home.
- Providing access to home energy efficiency improvement programmes.
- Monitoring air quality at the local level and warning those who are vulnerable when the quality is low.
- Making it easier, more convenient, and safer to walk and cycle around the city.
- Making public transport an attractive and viable alternative to using the private car. This will include promoting the development and use of public transport systems such as the electric bus fleet and Coventry Very Light Rail.
- Creating new areas of open space in the city. These new areas will be in sections of the city where there is less open space.
- Capitalising on Coventry’s position as the leader of the green industrial revolution. This will include providing our residents with training and skills to take advantage of the employment opportunities within this growing industry.
In the UK
- We have 8.4m people living in food poverty, but we throw away roughly 9.5m tonnes of food waste each year (Statistics from Business Waste UK).
- Around 60% of food waste is from homes, with bread, dairy products, potatoes, and apples being the most wasted items (Statistics from Business Waste UK).
- Only 2% of the child population cycles to school, but 14% said they wished they could (Statistics from a national survey by Sustrans).
- On average, an item of clothing is worn only 10 times before it’s disposed of. The world now consumes about 80 billion new pieces of clothing every year, 400% more than the amount consumed 20 years ago.
- 360,000 tonnes of reusable clothes are thrown away each year.
