Meritxell Martell Lamolla
Climate Risks and Adaptation in Liverpool City Region
The third workshop of the Climate Metropole+ Metropolis initiative was held in Liverpool on 20-21 June 2016. Participants from Barcelona Metropolitan Area, Grand Lyon and representatives from the Circles of Climate and Berlin attended the workshop. The councillor Malcolm Kennedy from Liverpool City Council gave a welcoming speech and explained the origin of the city of Liverpool and the need to do more for cyclists and pedestrians. Councillor Kennedy also highlighted the need for experts to make things simple for decision-makers on issues such as climate adaptation.
The first day included presentations on: climate risks and adaptation initiatives in Liverpool, incorporation of green infrastructure into the development at Wirral Waters Merseyside regeneration project, coastal management of Sefton coastal dunes and the Climate Local Authority Support Programme project (CLASP). The first field trip involved a visit to Alder Hey Hospital (photo) to reflect on the concept and vision of the hospital and all the sustainability measures foreseen as well as the innovative climate adaptation measures incorporated into the building design. The second field trip involved taking the ferry across the river Mersey to Wirral and taking an afternoon tea at Woodside Home Café whilst listening to two presentations: Mr. Paul Nolan, the Director of Merseyforest, presented the Wirral Waters Development Scheme and how green infrastructure supported regeneration and helped to adapt and mitigate climate change. Then, Ms. Alisa Gibson presented the CLASP project and how advice on climate adaptation was provided to local authority members and officers.
The second day started with two presentations: Mr. Paul James from Circles of Climate presented the latest progress in the No Regrets Charter and Ms. Alison Ball from ARUP presented Liverpool’s participation in the Rockefeller Foundation City Resilience Index. Then, Ms. Ana Romero presented a draft agenda for the both workshop and final seminar to be held in Barcelona on 17-18 November 2016. This was followed by a debate regarding future opportunities for continuing the collaboration among the partners, possible dissemination activities related to the project and the final output from the project to be distributed both online and as a publication at the Barcelona seminar. Finally, Mr Bruce McCormack gave two presentations, one on Africa’s largest informal settlement and set it within the context of rapid population growth in Africa (another 1.3b people in 34 years) and urban growth (450m extra urban dwellers by 2030). His second presentation focused on issues related to the ‘Now’ principle in the No Regrets Charter.