The London Climate Resilience Review has issued a call for evidence by Saturday 2 September 2023.

Making sure London is ready for floods, storms, extreme heat, and drought is important for national security and a chance to build a fairer society, improving all Londoners’ lives and livelihoods.

In last year’s record-breaking 40°C heat, schools were closed, hospital operations were cancelled as systems crashed and wildfires caused the busiest day for the London Fire Brigade since the Second World War. London is also vulnerable to flash flooding because of the large number of hard surfaces across the city. This affects homes and critical services such as hospitals, schools, and Underground stations.

The National Adaptation Programme sets the actions that government and others will take to adapt to the challenges of climate change in England. London has a range of Mayoral delivery programmes to support immediate action plus plans and strategies to support long-term planning for the impacts of climate change. These include The London Environment Strategy, The London Resilience Strategy and The London Plan.

Despite action, climate hazards are increasing in severity, frequency, and duration. As the climate changes we learn more about how we should prepare, and this affects our long-term decision making. For example, London is well protected from tidal flooding by the Thames barrier and other flood defences. Today, effective monitoring of sea level rise means we know the deadline for raising flood defences upstream of the Thames Barrier is 2050. This has changed from 2065 in the original plan.

The Mayor of London has commissioned an independent review to take stock and make recommendations to guide London’s preparations for more extreme weather. London is plagued by inequality and it is also one of the greatest cities in the history of the world, full of opportunity, innovation, and enterprise. The Review seeks to identify actions we can take to make full use of London’s strengths, ensuring the whole city is climate ready. It also aims to understand, in some cases, what is stopping those actions from happening already.

The independent Chair of the London Climate Resilience Review is Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair of the Green Finance Institute and UN Global Ambassador for the Race to Resilience and Race to Zero.