Lessons from major cities on adapting to the climate crisis

Ideas from Singapore and Copenhagen could serve the rest well

- LARA WILLIAMS

Raise your hand if you've been victimized by bad weather in the last year or so. Was your travel disrupted? Did your home get unbearably hot? Have you been impacted by flooding? When I asked these questions at a panel event recently, only a lucky few in the audience kept their hands down. Even if we weren't individually experiencing climate change, we'd want our communities to avoid tragedies.

After all, societies can't thrive underwater, which is why the Netherlands has excellent flood management systems.

Yet, emissions from burning fossil fuels are baking the planet and its impacts are coming at us thick and fast. In many cases, we need to prepare and adapt with more urgency than planned. Take the example of the UK, where I live. In April 2023, the government brought forward deadlines for raising tidal flood defences upstream of the Thames Barrier by 15 years to 2050 because sea levels are rising faster than projected. In 2021, the UK's Climate Change Risk Assessment said "there is a very small chance" of the UK exceeding 40° Celsius by 2040. In 2022, temperatures rose to a record 40.3° Celsius.