The government is facing growing calls to make its fracking ban permanent, as opponents raised concerns the major U-turn could be an election ploy.

Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom on Saturday described the moratorium imposed after a damning report as “disappointing”, and made it clear it will only be in place “until the science changes”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said imposing the moratorium in the run-up to the December 12 poll is an “election stunt”, and reiterated a pledge that his party would “end fracking”.

Greenwash

The suspension is a reversal of years of support from the Tories, including from Boris Johnson who has consistently praised shale gas extraction and hit out at its opponents.

It came after research from the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) raised concerns over the ability to predict fracking-linked earthquakes.

Speaking to reporters in Swindon, Mr Corbyn said: “I think it sounds like fracking would come back on December 13, if they were elected back into office. We’re quite clear, we will end fracking.

“It seems to me like an election stunt and I think it’s what’s called euphemistically a bit of greenwash.”

The Liberal Democrats raised similar fears, with leader Jo Swinson telling the PA news agency the announcement was “a bit of a distraction”.

Outrage

She added: “A moratorium is half a step in the right direction but at the end of the day this is a Government that has abolished the department of climate change and has been making it harder and preventing on-shore wind farms being built.”

Former Tory energy minister Sam Gyimah, who defected to the Lib Dems, said he does not take the announcement “seriously at all”. 

He told PA: “Boris Johnson’s conversion to environmentalism is skin deep. It’s interesting that just as we approach an election he has decided he is againstfracking.”

Friends of the Earth chief executive Craig Bennett welcomed the suspension as a “tremendous victory for communities and the climate” – but he too called for legislation to make it permanent.

The government announced on Friday it is ending its support for fracking, a process which has provoked particular outrage in counties such as Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Moratorium

On Saturday, Ms Leadsom defended the suspension despite praising the “advantages” offracking, which she hailed as “a huge opportunity”.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s a disappointment but we’ve always been clear that we will follow the science.”

Pressed on why a permanent ban is not being imposed, she replied: “Because this is a huge opportunity for the United Kingdom.

“We will follow the science and it is quite clear that we can’t be certain. The science isn’t accurate enough to be able to assess the fault lines, the geological studies have been shown to be inaccurate, so therefore unless and until we can be absolutely certain, we are imposing a moratorium.”

Jobs

The OGA report found it is not possible to accurately predict the probability or magnitude of earthquakes linked to fracking.

The PM has previously hailed fracking as a potential “answer to the nation’s prayers”, and called its critics’ reactions as “ludicrous” and “mad denunciations”.

But he has now followed Labour’s pledge for a ban and conceded he has “very considerable anxieties” about it, amid growing public opposition.

The climate crisis is one of the issues Mr Corbyn wants to focus on in the winter election campaign, with the party announcing a raft of measures including the creation of thousands of green jobs.

These Authors

Emma Bowden is a reporter with PA. Sam Blewett is the PA political correspondent.

Heathrow Airport’s expansion could be scrapped under Labour plans to tackle the climate crisis by making the nation carbon-neutral by 2030.

Leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell both signalled the controversial plans for a third runway may be blocked if the party wins the general election.

On Sunday, Mr McDonnell told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show: “We set ourselves criteria, one of which was environmental impact, the other was also economic impact and social impact.

Runway

“On the current criteria, we’ve said very clearly, Heathrow expansion doesn’t qualify.”

Pressed if Labour would cancel the extension, he said: “At the moment it does not qualify based on the criteria we set out.”

Later in the day, Mr Corbyn said: “It has to meet those tests and that is the reason why I opposed it when it last came to Parliament because, in my view, it did not meet those tests.”

Other expansions across the country including in Manchester would also be considered under the criteria.

Parliament gave the go-ahead last year for the expansion of the London airport, which published its “masterplan” in June to build a third runway by 2026.

This Author

Sam Blewett is the PA political correspondent.

Jeremy Corbyn is proposing a move to upgrade almost every home in the UK with energy-saving measures to tackle the climate crisis and bring down household bills.

Labour says work to install loft insulation, double glazing and renewable and low carbon technologies in nearly 27 million homes by 2030 would create 450,000 jobs and cost the government £60 billion.

Promising the largest investment project since the Second World War if Labour wins the December 12 election, the “warm homes for all” pledge is hoped to cut carbon emissions by 10%.

Compensation

Labour expects the project to cost £250 billion in upgrade works – an average of £9,300 per home – but that only £60 billion would come as a cost to central government.

The party says £21 billion would come from loans to regional energy agencies and £169 billion coming out of savings from household energy bills.

The Labour leader said: “If we don’t radically change course we face the threat of a hostile and dying planet. But Labour will turn that threat into an opportunity.

“By investing on a massive scale, we will usher in a green industrial revolution with good, clean jobs that will transform towns, cities and communities that have been held back and neglected for decades.”

Mr Corbyn launched the pledge by visiting a housing association block in Putney, south-west London, where residents have won major repairs and compensation following bad living conditions.

Savings

Mother-of-two Sabiha Aziz, 28, invited the Labour leader into her flat on Sunday, where she told of hazards including water soaking electrics and damp in the building.

Another resident said she was forced to carry her daughter – who has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair – up 18 flights of stairs due to the lift breaking down for weeks on end.

During the visit to Clyde House, Mr Corbyn told the group that upgrades in the pledge were about “empowering” residents in rented accommodation.

Labour expects the initiative would also bring down the energy bills of 9.6 million low income households by £417 per year and eradicate the vast majority of fuel poverty by the mid 2020s.

Low income households would get upgrades funded by grants and keep most of the savings on their bills, with part being used to pay off some of the cost of the work.

Carbon

Wealthier homes would be offered interest free loans with no up-front costs, but would see their bills decline more slowly with the regional agencies repaying the loan with the savings.

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey said: “Warm homes for all is one of the greatest investment projects since we rebuilt Britain’s housing after the Second World War.

“Labour will offer every household in the UK the chance to bring the future into their homes – upgrading the fabric of their homes with insulation and cutting edge heating systems – tackling both climate change and extortionate bills.”

The pledge is the latest from Labour’s “green industrial revolution”, which would also see all new homes built so no additional carbon is added to the atmosphere.

The Conservatives criticised the Labour announcement.

This Author

Emma Bowden is a reporter with PA. Sam Blewett is the PA political correspondent.

Families in Bristol are having to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table.

Climate breakdown might not be front of mind for those families, but for Bristol as a city it must be a priority.

So we’re starting afresh. We’re launching a new project that will help to meet those social needs in a way that does not put an unacceptable burden on our planet.

Smart energy

Bristol City Leap will deliver a zero-carbon, smart energy city which will deliver up to one billion pounds of investment and provide significant economic benefits for the people of Bristol and its businesses.

Led by Bristol City Council and Bristol Energy, the city’s energy company, City Leap will establish a joint venture with another organisation, or group of organisations, to support the delivery of the UK’s first carbon neutral city by 2030. 

Bristol is the ideal city to pioneer this bold vision. We were the first major UK city to declare a climate emergency, we developed our own wind and solar farms back in 2005, and we had the honour in 2015 of being the UK’s first European Green Capital. 

The UK’s 63 largest towns and cities are responsible for 50 percent of our carbon output, so have a huge responsibility in tackling climate breakdown.

But we can only achieve so much without government funding, and while Bristol City Council will continue to lobby and campaign the government to provide that investment, we will not sit idly by and wait for action on their part. 

Carbon emissions

That’s why, as part of the City Leap initiative, we are searching for a partner or multiple partners to provide the heavy lifting in terms of investment.

The project will enable us to reduce our carbon emissions across energy, transport and industry and engage with businesses and residents to make a real difference.

City Leap will see Bristol increasingly move away from the national energy network and into more localised systems, with more people generating their own energy and increased investment into new renewable energy in the city.

Much of that investment will go into heat networks, which are hidden from view but can have a huge impact on local people. We recently developed a network for social housing residents in Redcliffe which has significantly reduced household bills and enabled residents to access low-carbon heat for their homes.

We are also hoping to implement a funding scheme which would allow homeowners to access subsidies for rooftop solar panels, and are looking at tightening new building regulations, particularly where insulation is concerned. 

We’ll enable the transition to electric cars by investing in even more charge points and we’ll improve public transport links, which could include the development of a mass transit underground system. 

Social purpose

At its heart, City Leap is a community-driven venture, with the goal of providing infrastructure to serve the people of Bristol into a net-zero 2030 and beyond. 

The aim of Bristol Energy is to deliver energy with a social purpose, and its inclusion in the project will help to ensure we create a smart energy system that weaves a number of technologies together to deliver clean energy and that benefits local people.

We’re fortunate that we already have a number of community energy groups set up across Bristol who we regularly engage with on key issues, and City Leap will enable us to collaborate with them to ensure we can smoothly rollout new infrastructure to deliver a net-zero city that works for everyone. 

That collaborative approach is also reflected within City Hall as we’ve seen all departments and political parties get behind the plan for City Leap. 

These activities will bring new job opportunities to the city so we’re focused on delivering a just transition to deliver economic and environmental success for Bristol. 

Inspiring others

We’re very proud of our record on the environment in Bristol and our ambitions for the future, but the issue of climate breakdown is bigger than one city and one plan. 

We want City Leap to inspire cities around the world to take action, so one of the key pillars of the project is to create something that is replicable.

Mass adoption and support of ventures similar to City Leap will not only improve the quality of life in cities across the world, but they have the potential to galvanise governments into action and help us to work together to tackle the biggest challenge that we face.

This Author

Councillor Kye Dudd is the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Transport, Energy & The Green New Deal at Bristol City Council.

The Permaculture Magazine Prize showcases the very best examples of ecological, social and economical regenerative permaculture projects in the world.

The prize shines a light on good people and good work in a world on the edge of collapse and climate crisis.

The winner and runners up of its main category plus the Youth in Permaculture Prize sponsored by the Abundant Earth Foundation has now been announced.

Nurturing refugees

African Women Rising takes the main £10,000 award for its work in Palabek Refugee Camp, North Uganda, creating innovative, long-term solutions to help solve the food security problems.

The monthly food aid rations from the United Nations World Food Program often run out. African Women Rising have used permaculture design techniques to teach the permagarden method, giving refugees access to diverse and nutritious food, helping to meet the short-term food needs of the refugees, and build their long-term resilience. 

Anthony Rodale, 2019 Permaculture Magazine prize judge, said: “With more displacement and uncertainty in the world than ever before, I feel that African Women Rising demonstrates practical regenerative and permaculture solutions right to the front line between life and death that could benefit millions of refugees.

“It’s an organization of Hope. Most global conflicts begin over loss of land, food shortages, climate change. AWR’s organization and work I believe could be a beacon for the global humanitarian development network at large.

“I’ve worked in international development for years and AWR is actually trying to scale up regenerative programs built on the permaculture design framework and agroecological practices. I believe AWR could help to innovate and elevate the permaculture concept into new areas of our global society. We need BIG ideas, and Big Change, NOW!”

Green desert

Thanks to a generous additional donor, a second prize of £5,000 was made available, with Bayoudha Village in Jordan taking the prize. Since 2011, the project has used permaculture methods to engage the local community in regenerating their landscape, focussing on conserving and restoring damaged watersheds.

A bustling farmers’ market is reviving the economy for local products, making healthy, local and organic produce available to the community and the new ‘Karm’ centre is experimenting and teaching techniques for river remediation, agroforestry and profitable agriculture, to help local farmers make a living while protecting and restoring their ecosystems.

Runners up

The four runners up are equally impressive and each will receive £2,500.

They are:

1. Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura (IMAP), Guatemala. Due to disproportionate land control, small-scale farmers only have access to small, inaccessible and poor quality plots. IMAP have trained over 10,000 smallholder farmers to grow in these conditions, using permaculture, the production of native crops and the conservation of resilient native seeds throughout Mesoamerica. This enables resilience to varying climate conditions, and improves food security and local market power. IMAP implements a co-operative model whereby Guatemala’s most marginalized people – Indigenous men and women – are the owners of their own seed production as well as their own livelihoods.

2. Northern Youth Project, New Mexico, has created a safe space for young people to learn and become part of a community. They learn leadership skills, get involved with growing food, create art and understand how to respect and care for the land. Learning resilience through traditional and sustainable farming methods and permaculture, enables food sovereignty, health and builds a strong community.

3. Permakultur Kalimantan Foundation, Borneo, have created an educational permaculture site that showcases multilayered canopy food forests with flourishing ecosystems, are beneficial alternatives to the common monoculture agriculture techniques, which are destroying ‘the lungs of the earth’.

4. The School of Earth, Greece, bring permaculture methods to their Mediterranean climate. They provide free classes to marginalized and minority groups, including refugees, sharing skills for creating food forests, restoring fire damaged land and slowing down desertification.

Young people 

A £5,000 prize, divided amongst three winners, was developed to support youth around the world, 25 years or younger, using innovative farming and education practices to face climate change and social challenges.

The first place winner is Mohamed Qasim Lessani, of Afghanistan. Qasim believes that “education can heal the injured mindset of people who believe nothing can change Afghanistan.”

After completing a Permaculture Design Course with Australian teacher Rosemary Morrow (who brings permaculture to many war-torn countries and refugee camps), Qasim is applying permaculture design to transform schools into models for basic human security, including food, water and energy – even in areas of extreme poverty, violence and war.

Runners up are:

· Maria Seltzer, New Mexico, USA. Maria shares examples of how regenerative farming practices can offer a path out of poverty. By restoring the land on her family farm and working towards a more diverse food system, Maria is showcasing to local farmers that their dry climate and barren soils can be turned into food-producing and revenue generating lands through permaculture practices.

· The Brackenology Yeam, Kenya. Their innovative way of teaching permaculture is bringing nature to children through art. Their alternative education is open-source, making it available to all.

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from the Permaculture Magazine.

Yorkshire-born joinery teacher Donald Watson left a global legacy few could have predicted. Born in 1910, he was a pioneer from a young age. By his mid-teens he had made the unconventional choice to become a vegetarian on ethical grounds, citing the horrors of the animal agriculture industry as his motivation.

But it was his actions some 20 years on which left their global mark. Taking his ethical consumption a step further, Watson is said to have coined a term which has revolutionised the way millions of us eat. In November 1944, Donald Watson proposed the term ‘vegan’.

Watson’s influence is internationally recognised on the 1st November each year on World Vegan Day. This year, as our precious flora and fauna continue to vanish before our eyes, we must recognise that the animal agriculture industry is fuelling the destruction and a vegan diet is the best choice we can make to stop it.

Diverse

In the UK our species have suffered unrelenting net-losses since 1970. Two-thirds of North American birds are at risk of extinction due to climate change. Global marine animal communities are projected to shrink within the next century as temperatures rise. In total, one million animal and plant species could vanish if we do not act. This is destruction on a catastrophic scale. This is the sixth mass extinction.

We know our consumption is exacerbating the crisis. For years we have been told to make changes to our lives in the name of the planet – to cut car and air travel, switch off our lights and take showers instead of baths – but the contribution of our diets has been neglected for too long.

In the space of one year, the agriculture industry was reportedly responsible for some 24 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions, and livestock farming makes up four-fifths of the industry’s contribution.

This summer the world watched on in horror as more than 40,000 fires devastated the Amazon rainforest, yet it is purged year-round to make way for livestock farming. Some 70 percent of deforestation in the Amazon can be attributed to cattle ranching and most of the rest is cleared to grow fodder for livestock. This is destroying vital habitats once home to a diverse array of unique species.

Horrors

We are running out of time to put a stop to the obliteration of our natural world. But the solution is simple, choose a vegan diet.

Researchers at Oxford University found that moving to a vegan diet could have transformative environmental benefits. Making this change on a mass scale would slash the land required to produce food by some 76 percent and could reduce food emissions by 50-80 percent. This is the let-up global nature needs to flourish.

As the world reels at the devastation caused by our unfettered consumption, it’s time we turn our gaze to what we eat for a solution. On this year’s World Vegan Day, Viva! is asking everyone to #GoVegan24 and try veganism for 24 hours to see just how easy it is the make this essential change.

Following the path Donald Watson courageously forged over half a century ago, we must wake up to the horrors of the animal agriculture industry and choose a vegan diet to protect our precious species for centuries to come.

This Author

Juliet Gellatley is director of Viva! The charity is launching its #GoVegan24 campaign on 1st November for World Vegan Day.

Vampire bats help their neighbours in need even if there is no benefit to them –  not what one might expect from the blood-sucking creatures.

Scientists found the flying mammals develop social bonds during captivity which they maintained when returned to the wild.

Researchers say vampire bat co-operation is rare in that individuals pay a cost to help others. They were observed regurgitating their food – ingested blood – to feed non-relatives.

Reciprocal

Study co-lead author Gerald Carter, assistant professor of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at Ohio State University, said: “What’s quite common in animal co-operation is doing something where we both benefit simultaneously: let’s live together, let’s hunt together. I’m benefiting, you’re benefiting. 

“Here, there’s a kind of risk. If you have a co-operative trait that helps other individuals and costs you, natural selection should wipe that trait out unless the co-operative individual benefits somehow.

“With vampire bat food sharing, there must be a benefit. It must be that by helping others I’m also helping myself.”

He added that scientists think the bats must have long-term reciprocal relationships, but it is not yet clear how that works.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) housed female vampire bats and their captive-born offspring in a closed laboratory colony for 22 months.

Shared

This created conditions that prompted social bonding behaviours of food sharing and grooming.

The bats were then returned to their natural outdoor home roost of a hollow tree, equipped with sensors that recorded how close they were to each other every two seconds.

Those same sensors were placed on a control group of wild bats.

Over eight days, researchers collected enough data from the sensors to suggest that relationships between the previously captive bats persisted when they returned to the wild.

According to the study published in the Current Biology journal, from an evolutionary standpoint this suggests that whether bats maintain a relationship can be attributed in part to their shared history.

Social networks

Researchers returned 23 captive bats wearing sensors to their hollow tree and glued sensors to 27 wild female bats living in the same roost.

According to the data, the test bats had closer bonds with each other than they did with control bats.

The findings suggest that even with about 200 potential partners in the roost, the bats that had connected in the lab stuck together in the wild – a sign that they had formed social bonds.

In order to conduct the research, Simon Ripperger of the Museum fur Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science in Berlin and colleagues had to develop the sensors.

These tiny devices, which are lighter than a penny, were attached to the bats like backpacks and allowed scientists to capture social networks of entire social groups of bats.

This Author

Nina Massey is the PA science correspondent.

Major oil and gas firms must cut production by more than a third by 2040 to meet global targets to tackle climate change and prevent shareholder losses, analysis warns.

Under the international Paris Agreement, countries committed to keep global temperature rises to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit them to 1.5C to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

But the latest report from climate finance analysts Carbon Tracker warned that global-proved reserves of fossil fuels still significantly exceed the amount that can be burned to stay within Paris limits.

Investment

Since 2011, global-proved reserves of oil and gas have increased and amount to 50 years at current production, Carbon Tracker said.

Global emissions from fossil fuels need to come down swiftly and reach net zero in the second half of the century to prevent dangerous climate change.

According to Carbon Tracker analysis that looked at which projects would still be economic in a world on track to limit rises to 1.6C, the world’s seven oil and gas majors must cut their production by an average of 35% and emissions by 40% by 2040.

Different companies will have to do more or less depending on what projects they are exploiting and have in the pipeline.

A failure to curb production would mean the world misses its targets to limit rising temperatures or shareholders lose out as investment in projects becomes “stranded” in the face of lower demand for fossil fuels as countries meet their goals.

Production

Company targets to reduce emissions often exclude the final use – such as burning petrol in combustion engine cars – which accounts for the majority of the pollution from the fuels, or do not focus on total carbon cuts.

None of the companies have “Paris-compliant” goals, the analysis suggests.

Mike Coffin, oil and gas analyst at Carbon Tracker and report author, said: “If companies and governments attempt to develop all their oil and gas reserves, either the world will miss its climate targets or assets will become ‘stranded’ in the energy transition, or both.

“The industry is trying to have its cake and eat it – reassuring shareholders and appearing supportive of Paris, while still producing more fossil fuels. This analysis shows that if companies really want to both mitigate financial risk and be part of the climate solution, they must shrink production.”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.

The Formula 1 racing world witnessed some ugly infighting recently, but this time it wasn’t over pit stops, early breaking or contracts. It was a food fight.

First-place champ Lewis Hamilton was the recipient of a stream of verbal attacks taking aim at his vegan and environmental advocacy.

Hamilton’s former teammate Fernando Alonso implied that Hamilton is a hypocrite because, like most F1 drivers, he must fly to races around the world. He also suggested that Hamilton should just keep his mouth shut about his vegan beliefs.

Positive influence

He got flak from announcer Will Buxton, too, as well as from fellow driver Romain Grosjean. So why is there so much hate for a man who is trying to do good?

Hamilton is making an effort to do something positive for animals and the Earth – and he’s succeeding. Like every vegan, he’s saving nearly 200 animals a year from a painful, terrifying death. He’s also reducing the amount of greenhouse gases his diet contributes to climate change by up to 60 percent.

By using his spotlight to promote vegan eating, Hamilton is influencing legions of fans to consider leaving animals off their plates – a ripple effect that can have a massive impact.

In addition to being vegan, Hamilton is working toward being carbon neutral by the end of the year. He sold his private jet and now flies commercially (when he must fly), and he’s pushing Mercedes-Benz to replace its leather interiors with vegan leather or vegan suede. It’s a start… 

Hamilton has remarked that it breaks his heart that more people don’t immediately see the suffering of animals who are used for meat, milk and eggs and do something to help stop it. That is a wonderful reaction – one that should be praised, not mocked. Or is the goal to discourage him from doing anything at all to help?

Deep-seated defensiveness

No one is the Buddha. Instead of tearing down people who are doing their best to make a difference, we should support and applaud them.

So what prompted these hateful anti-vegan tirades against Hamilton? Was it jealousy or competition spiralling out of control? I suspect it’s something even deeper than that.

There is a great cartoon that gets at the heart of this issue. It depicts a clearly upset little fellow – eyes bulging and hands waving in the air – ranting at another character, who is wearing an “I <3 cows” shirt. “Everything was fine until you pointed out I ruined it!” the angry one fumes. The cartoon goes on to explain: “You may think you are fine eating meat – but if vegans make you angry, then you are not fine with it at all.”

Underlying many anti-vegan outbursts is a deep-seated defensiveness. And Hamilton isn’t the only one to be subjected to such bullying.

When freelance journalist Selene Nelson suggested a series of articles on the rise of vegan eating last year, it prompted an infamous tirade from food critic William Sitwell, who suggested: “How about a series on killing vegans, one by one.” 

Treat lightly

People who attack others for making kind choices are likely trying to quiet their own guilty conscience. 

As writer George Reynolds recently opined: “We are conditioned to like animals and decry animal cruelty, and yet we are also brought up in a culture that revels in the bacon sandwich, the Sunday roast, fish and chips.

“One simple explanation for why people don’t like vegans is because they show how confused humankind is about food choices and how illogical its decision-making can be.”

People love to smirk, “But … bacon!” But no one feels good about the way animals are abused and killed for meat – their tails and testicles are cut off without painkillers, they’re crammed en masse into filthy sheds, and they’re dunked into scalding-hot water for feather or hair removal at the abattoir.

No one is proud that their food choices contribute to the crisis our Earth is facing, from the Amazon going up in smoke to rivers and lakes polluted with factory farm runoff to climate change, which threatens the very future of life on this planet.

Perhaps, instead of getting defensive, those who are not yet vegan should take a hard look at the consequences of their choices and make a change.

The good news is that it’s never been easier to take a step towards going vegan. And while no one is perfect and there is much work to be done, striving to tread lightly on the planet is something to commend, not condemn.

This Author

Ingrid Newkirk is the president and founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world’s largest animal rights organisation.

Image: jen_ross83, Flickr.

Solutions found in nature should be our first line of defence against the increasing number of climate change-related natural disasters. 

Surrey’s Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), led by Professor Prashant Kumar, is working with collaborators across Europe as a part of the OPERANDUM project that aims to manage the rising impact of severe weather and climate related hazards across European and non-European territories using nature-based solutions (NBS).

In a paper published by the journal Environment Research the team from GCARE categorised natural hazards into four groups – geophysical, meteorological, hydrological and climatological – to understand their causes and  associated risks. They found that some hazards could trigger others simultaneously or cumulatively in a cascading manner over time, causing multi-hazards and huge damage to humans, economy and infrastructure.

Natural hazards 

Natural hazards – such as floods, landslides, heatwaves and droughts – have increased globally in the last 30 years, with more than 18,000 disasters taking place during the period of 1980 to 2018, resulting in €4.8 trillion of damage.

In the same period, Europe experienced nearly 3,000 disasters which caused €631 Billion of losses. Particularly, heatwaves and floods have caused significant loss of life and economic damage across Europe and other parts of the world. 

The team at GCARE analysed nearly 300 case studies where NBS were used to combat the effects of natural hazards. They found that floods were the most frequent type of hazard in Europe, while droughts were the most complicated in terms of triggering risks of other disasters.

The researchers also found that earthquakes and storms were the most destructive globally in terms of damage such as deaths and economic losses.

The team identified that 56 per cent of NBS in Europe were used to combat flooding. While the most used methods were ‘hybrid’ solutions such as green roofs and rain gardens, the most effective flood management solutions were in fact ‘blue’ constructions such as small ponds for river floods.

Knowledge gap

Similarly, the deadliest heatwaves were mostly managed by green approaches, such as urban parks, trees and grasses.

The effectiveness of any NBS depends on its location, architecture, typology, green species and environmental conditions. Therefore, design and deployment of NBS against hydro-meteorological hazards needs special care.

The team also compared NBS with structural and non-structural measures, and highlighted that about 85 per cent of the hydro-meteorological risk management using NBS were cost-effective. As further knowledge becomes available, the cost-effectiveness of NBS will increase in future compared to structural and non-structural adaptation measures.

In another paper published by the Science of the Total Environment journal, GCARE critically evaluated thevarious ways to monitor, assess and manage hazards such as floods, droughts and heatwaves. The paper looks at how NBS such as wetlands, grasslands and sand beaches can be used as efficient, cost-effective, long-lasting and sustainable approaches to disaster risk management. 

In both the published papers, the authors are calling on politicians, decision makers and researchers across the globe to fill the knowledge gap that is hampering the further development and deployment of NBS by green-lighting onsite monitoring and undertaking research that compares the effectiveness of NBS with grey or structural and non-structural approaches.

Pressing crisis 

Professor Prashant Kumar, director of GCARE at the University of Surrey and the corresponding author of these studies, said: “Here at GCARE, we firmly believe that if we are to successfully combat climate change – the pressing crisis of our time, which is surely increasing the frequency and severity of many natural hazards – then NBS have to be the first line of defence.

“Scientists can play a significant role in increasing the adoption of these natural solutions by helping decision makers and politicians understand their effectiveness and their cost over time.

“OPERANDUM project brings 26 organisations from 13 countries together, and offers an impressive platform to support the exchange of knowledge and collaboration among science, practice and policy actors. 

“These first studies build a solid foundation for further research in the project to take forward the concept of NBS for devising novel, practical, cost-effective and environment-friendly solutions.”

This Article 

This article is based on a press release from the University of Surrey.