Adapting to a changing climate

Should Peckham Power add 'helping residents adapt to London's climate as it changes' to our list of aims?

• It's becoming clear that whatever happens, we're almost certainly already committed to a warmer, changing climate (the projections range from disruptive (but manageable) to catastrophic, depending largely on how well we mitigate) and hence we need to adapt as well as mitigate.  To quote from an article in this week's Nature (Rogelj et al 2010) describing some new modelling work:

  "Current pledges [updated at Copenhagen] mean a greater than 50% chance that warming will exceed 3°C by 2100.  If nations agree to halve emissions by 2050, there is still a 50% chance that warming will exceed 2°C and will almost certainly exceed 1.5°C".

  For the UK, this is projected to mean (amongst other things) hotter, drier summers; wetter winters (largely because warmer air carries more water) and an increase in sea levels of between 75cm to 190cm by 2100.
• There are some complex issues e.g.
  • is PP focussed broadly on reducing the risks of dangerous climate change & energy scarcity to Peckham residents or are we focussed specifically on energy infrastructure?
  • is there a danger that if we start talking about adaptation then people will relax about mitigation?
• Practical solutions that springs to mind are
  • On the Peckham Power loft insulation project, we'd mention that loft insulation helps keep the house cool in summer as well as warm in winter
  • some of our "real thing" sessions could include topics like:
  • if people ask for our advice on insulation then we mention that care needs to be taken to prevent summer overheating
• The London Major has recently consulted on London's CC adaptation strategy
• Is it possible that, in the near future, funding bodies will start requiring community groups to include adaptation?

So, what do you think: Do you think Peckham Power should add adaptation to our list of aims and to include adaptation in our future planning?  I'm not aware of any other local community groups which aim to help local residents to adapt (is Transition Town Peckham considering Climate Change adaptation?)