Councils can now access vital information about climate change in their area with a new online portal created by the world’s leading meteorological organisation.
Launched last week, the Met Office’s Local Authority Climate Service allows decision makers, environmental health and planning teams to visualise climate change within their jurisdiction, presenting them with possible challenges that will emerge, projections and advice on how to effectively communicate climate stories.
Partnering with Esri UK, the goal is to support climate adaptation planning, with the vast majority, with 6million Britons now considered to be at risk from heat and flooding according to research conducted by the University of Manchester and Friends of the Earth. Given the rise in numbers of vulnerable communities, local authorities need to prioritise adaptation measures and schemes, but very few are currently able to effectively act on this.
Local authorities are key in building resilience to climate change in our communities across the UK,’ said Head of Climate Services at the Met Office, Professor Jason Lowe OBE. ‘It is vital that our climate projections are available in a format that makes them most accessible and useful for local authorities to apply in assessing risks and starting to plan how to best adapt to our changing climate.’
‘By working with Esri UK we’ve embedded our data into a range of industry leading tools to ensure tailored climate information can be used by the people who need it, and with suitable guidance to help them apply it,’ he continued. ‘We know our climate is changing so it’s important we adapt to the extremes we’re likely to see more of. This new tool is a step forward in assisting local authorities minimise the impacts of climate change for the communities they serve.’
You can find the Local Authority Climate Service here.
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