For farmers adaptation may involve building new reservoirs on their land to store more water – this is what they did on the Elveden Estate but despite adding a 500,000 cubic metres reservoir to their exit 700,000 cubic metres storage capacity, they still reached a point if no more water for further irrigation. (1)
To help fill reservoirs, farmers may need new permits to allow them to abstract water from rivers during the wetter winter months – rather than doing so in the hotter dryer summer months. Reservoirs can also host floating solar panels! (2)
Some farmers are experimenting with restoring wetlands -such as water meadows, creating or restoring ponds, and re-wiggling rivers to keep more water on their land when it rains which both helps reduce flooding in the winter and keeping ground water levels higher in the summer.(3)
Another approach is to grow different crops that are more drought resistant, or to use different farming methods such as planting shade crops, sylviculture, smart irrigation techniques etc. Another consideration is to shift growing crops dependent on large amounts of water to a wetter region of the country. (4)
We as consumers can be part of the change: be willing to buy and eat different fruits and vegetables; eating more home grown vegetables (rather than relying on the produce of other drought challenged countries); eating less meat and dairy – both being large consumers of water.
This summer will hopefully prove the impetus needed for greater adaptation in the face of climate change both within the farming and food industry and for us as consumers.
We will all need to be thinking about eating and therefore growing different crops, and less of some and more of others. For farmers it will also be about different methods of farming.
Ongoing research and field evidence points to the importance of maintaining good soils. Soils that are full of organic material and active life forms – from worms to mycorrhizal fungi – are soils that retain more moisture and nutrients for crops.
Shading the soil – and often the crops too – helps reduce moisture loss and sunburn, and creates a micro climate so that moisture returns back into the soil.
Many farmers are increasing water storage, creating ponds, wetlands and reservoirs.
Trialing different crops is also happening, but is sometimes hindered by the unpredictability of the weather. A hot summer preceded by a dry spring will favour different crops from a hot summer preceded by a wet spring.
As consumers we will need to be willing to accept different fruits and vegetables in our shopping baskets – and more willing to eat seasonally. We may too want to be adaptive in our gardens, ensuring good soil, using shade to advantage, trying different crops – and different flowering and herbaceous plants. We too can invest in extra water butts to store more water.
Following on from yesterday, another approach would be to buy less. We probably think we have more stuff than we need so rather than buying something new, maybe question whether you actually need it or whether you have something already that would do. I recently needed some flip flops to walk along the path to the outdoor swimming pool – it’s about 50m of cold concrete – and then it occurred to me to use the old pair of sandals whose soles are wearing out.
Equally we are often tempted by advertising to buy things we don’t need.
Globally we know we have to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 – at the latest – if we are to curb the inexorable rise in temperatures, the associated increase in extreme weather events and any of the various tipping ecological points that would accelerate this process.
Here in the UK our government has set a target of reducing emissions by 68% (compared with 1990 values) by 2030 and by 81% by 2035 and ultimately by 100% by 2050.
To achieve these targets we need to reduce sharply our use of fossil fuels to heat our buildings (including cooling in the summer), to run our transport systems (vehicles, trains, airplanes etc), to generate electricity, and in various industrial processes such as making steel.
Such changes will impact is all. For householders it will include having to add more insulation to their homes and replacing gas boilers with electrically based heating. And for tenants, hopefully such alterations will be carried out by their landlords. For commercial and institutional buildings there will equally be the need to replace gas with electric heating and cooling systems, as well as upgrading thermal insulation. Such buildings may well have the scope to install solar panels and batteries so that they can generate their own electricity. The managers of such buildings may also want to reflect on how staff, users and customers travel to and from their premises to enable these to become more sustainable in their use of energy.
For car drivers it will be switching to electric cars or, even better, switching to public transport and active travel. For delivery drivers it will be switching to cycles for small, local loads and electric vehicles for larger ones. For the railway it will be investing in further electrification of the rail network and potentially developing battery units for short, smaller capacity branch lines. For airlines it must mean reducing the number of flights as there really is no green alternative to aviation fuel, although for short flights serving outlying islands battery planes may be a developmental opportunity.
For the energy sector, it will include continuing to develop and expand renewable energy sources (solar, wind and tidal) to provide all the extra green electricity that will be needed by other sectors, and to provide the necessary infrastructure to support that and to enable individual households, businesses and communities to develop their own generation capacity.
For industrial processes it will be switching to new methods of production such as using electric arc furnaces for steel making and for cement production developing new chemical formulations that avoid releasing large amounts of CO2.
These changes will also have impacts on jobs with some people needing to retrain for new careers – for example oil rig workers retraining to build and maintain offshore wind turbines, car workers might switch to building public transport rolling stock, airline staff might switch to working in the rail industry, blast furnace workers might retrain as installers of heat pumps and thermal insulation, or switch to manufacturing double glazing units, solar panels, and wind turbines etc.
These changes will need considerable financial investment, which must mean shifting money currently invested in supporting carbon intensive industries and projects, to these low carbon sustainable alternatives. And this will mean a shift in thinking by those who work in the financial markets – bankers, financiers, investment managers, pensions and insurance fund managers, etc.
These changes will also need government support, both in terms of legislation that will deliberately shift markets in the right direction, and in terms of subsidies, switching these away from carbon intensive industries and towards the green alternatives. And this will be a key role in achieving the carbon emission targets. Our capitalistic economic system is not well equipped to create the change we need. It is not well equipped to reflect the risks and damage caused by carbon intensive industries and products. Nor is it well equipped to ensure that those responsible for the damage already caused should pay for all necessary remedial and restorative action.
Earlier this week – 5th December – Shell and Equinor announced a plan to combine their operations in the North Sea to more effectively extract the remaining oil and gas reserves for ‘decades’ to come! This would ensure their continuing profit levels and in particular share dividends. How can it be economic to extract more carbon emitting oil and gas over those very same decades when we as a nation – and globally – are struggling to reduce our carbon emissions to net zero?
And how can it be that our government will provide subsidies to these oil companies to enable them to develop these projects? It is calculated that with tax breaks and subsidies, the UK could pay upward of 90p in the pound for the cost of developing the Rosebank oil field.
And how can it be that these oil companies can talk about – and use this in their advertising – that they are maintaining the UK’s energy security, and that they are keeping homes warm – and neglecting to point out that the cost of what they provide is at an increasing to customers and the environment – as if only gas and oil could achieve energy security?
What we need for a just transition is:
proactive action taken by the government to create and safeguard a transition via legislation that is fair to the working population, that is fair to householders, and that ensures a level and consistent playing field for businesses
Proactive action taken by the government to redirect subsidies so that they support and enhance the transition to renewables and ensure that the price to the consumer is affordable in the short term. (In the long term re-newables will be cheaper)
Proactive action by the financial world to shift finances from the old carbon intensive industries to the growing low carbon, sustainable ones
Proactive action by companies and organisations to ensure their operations are shifting at pace to achieve net zero.
A key part in this transition can be found in the Climate and Nature Bill – the CAN Bill – which is a private member’s bill that is currently making its way through Parliament. We can show our support for this via the Zero Hours web page and by asking our individuals MPs to back the bill when it comes for its second reading on 24th January – https://www.zerohour.uk/climate-and-nature-bill/
