With climate change expected to exacerbate existing pressures around housing, infrastructure and services, the Greater London Authority (GLA) wanted to consider the future impacts of heat. We led a consultation and mapping exercise with key London stakeholders and University College London and then identified the exposure of assets to the urban heat island effect. This took into account future scenarios and the planned growth of the city so futureproof mitigation strategies around health and infrastructure risks that might causing large scale disruption. Mitigation strategies focused on spatial planning measures, the integration of green and blue infrastructure and the electrification of buildings and transport.

WSP was commissioned by the Climate Finance Facility of C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the global coalition of major city governments collaborating on climate action, to research and develop the latest trends and case studies for climate finance vehicles for global cities. Our work focused on social inclusion and equity, and green economic recovery from the Covid pandemic. We created a set of global case studies and useful report on the latest trends in global climate finance for cities, including the integration of new approaches to ensuring just and equitable outcomes from climate infrastructure projects.

We worked with Islington Council to develop an initial model for channelling private and public sector green finance to fund urban tree-planting and pocket-park projects. We researched and quantified the different carbon, health, climate adaptation, economic, transport mode shift, air quality and ecosystem service benefits of planned projects. We used the latest green finance guidance to develop a viable early-stage market model based on these benefits tailored to urban environments, as well as a costed analysis of the resources required to convert urban land to greenspace.

Working on behalf of the UK government, we created a plan for Birmingham to achieve zero carbon heating in line with Birmingham City Council’s 2030 target. Stage one of the decarbonisation delivery plan identified specific and evidence-based heat related interventions, drawing on UK and international best practice. This helped us create a phased, time-bound and deliverable plan. This includes a bespoke model of the city with baseline green house gas emissions mapped until 2050, and a long list of interventions that the city could take. Actions included discrete projects, city-wide policy measures and behavioural change actions at both individual citizen level, as well as institutional and corporate levels.

WSP were appointed to devise a plan for reducing the council’s organisational emissions to zero by 2030 as well as being carbon neutral council-wide by 2030. WSP reviewed baseline green house gas (GhG) emissions data around energy consumption to project the likely change in energy demand and GHG emissions between now and 2030 on the basis of business as usual. We conducted site visits to survey the existing systems, controls and equipment and identify options for decarbonising the building stock for the council’s energy use. The strategy included interventions to integrate with existing buildings and services at the timescales needed to meet the 2030 target.

This assignment for the West Midlands Combined Authority provided a detailed strategy and road map for the region to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2041. The study involved assessing all net zero and low carbon initiatives across the regional economy and quantifying their contribution to carbon reduction, as well as economic transformation. We identified gaps in activity and delivery and designed new initiatives for implementation. A major strand of the work has involved assessing the industry, labour market and skills implications of the net zero strategy and re-shaping delivery of education, skills development and organisational capacities across the region’s communities, businesses and public agencies.