Addressing environmental factors that cause poor health

The role of green space and energy efficient building in reducing health inequalities is covered by this series of evidence papers. More >

Mitigating Climate Change: should we pay now or later?

SWM Board member, Julia King, presented at the British Science Festival in September 2014 on behalf of the Committee on Climate Change. More >

Birmingham Research and Recommendations on Local Procurement

This report, commissioned by Birmingham City Council, sets out the prize on offer, and suggests a 2% levy on any contracts to support independent monitoring, guidance and help. More >

CLS Growing and Green Space report

This report looks at the progress communities have made over an 18 month period, as part of the Big Lottery funded Communities Living Sustainably (CLS) programme. More >

CLASP: Financing Large Scale Renewables Report

A concise, clear and easy to read guide to financing and setting up local authority led large scale renewable energy projects. More >

Climate Local: Annual Report

The LGA annual report sets out the key achievements under the Climate Local brand for local authorities over the past year. More >

Climate UK Conference presentations and Annual Report

Climate UK’s conference on 16 June ‘Resilience to a changing climate: local solutions’ included key speakers and saw the launch of Climate UK’s first public Annual Report 2014. More >

Demographic Issues Facing the West Midlands

The paper formed the background to a seminar series organised by FNWM, in partnership with others, with the aim of identifying the implications of demographic change for a range of strategic policy issues (e.g. health, housing, transport) and the challenges this poses for spatial planning across the wider West Midlands. More >

Greenhouse Gas Reporting: Conversion Factors, Regulation and Guidance

These presentations offer those authorities that are asked or required to report on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions with a useful overview of the changes made to the carbon conversion factors. More >

Practical Action to Build Community Resilience

This study looks at lessons from a scheme that helped residents of a UK neighbourhood to make their community more environmentally sustainable and adaptable to change. More >

Building a Resilient Environment – Sector Tools and Resources

Climate UK (in partnership with the Environment Agency’s Climate Ready service) has launched a new suite of adaptation to climate change training materials aimed at local authority officers, elected members and communities involved in the Town and Country Planning process. More >

Encraft Smart Grids Event – Presentations

There are big changes on the horizon with the roll out of smart meters, the storage and use of electricity locally and the impact this will have on local energy infrastructure. This event, organised by Encraft, brought these changes into focus by inviting experts on Smart Grid technology to come and present to West Midlands colleagues who work in the energy management sector. More >

Climate Change and Social Justice: An Evidence Review

How do the impacts of climate change in the UK – such as flooding and heatwaves – affect social justice in the UK, and how far is it considered in policy and practice responses? More >

LWEC – Climate Adaptation Policy and Practice Notes

The LWEC series of Policy and Practice Notes will draw out conclusions and recommendations from research funded by LWEC Partners on climate adaptation. They present key findings in non-technical language for public, private and third sector audiences. More >

Birmingham City Council – Green Living Spaces Plan

Birmingham’s Green Commission has begun to build a new framework for the future, in hope of establishing Birmingham as a leading green city. The Green Living Spaces Plan provides a key ingredient in that vision by linking the issues of climate change, public health and spatial planning. More >

London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games the legacy: Sustainable procurement for projects

The report highlights key instruction on the procurement of sustainable buildings and infrastructure. The Olympic Delivery Authority published their Sustainable Development Strategy a year after winning the bid for the games. It was intended to act as a catalyst for industry to deliver improvements in economic, social and environmental sustainability with the hope that these lessons would be spread across the UK. The report now looks to local authorities to deliver growth in a sustainable way using the framework highlighted in the report. More >

The National Adaptation Programme: Making the country resilient to a changing climate

The National Adaptation Programme (NAP) sets out how government, businesses, communities and civil society are taking steps to prepare for and adapt to climate change. More >

Success Factors in Delivering DECC LA Funded Projects – June 2013

The purpose of this presentation was to give an overview of West Midlands/Cheshire DECC local authority funded Green Deal projects in order to establish success factors and lessons learnt from these projects to support rapid adoption of best practice in retrofit. More >

Payments for Ecosystem Services: A Best Practice Guide

Defra has published a guide to both explain the key principles of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) and to help with the implementation of such services. More >

Exploring sub-national support for climate change and sustainability

Date of the resource May 2013 Author of the resource Sustainability East (the equivalent of… More >

The Economics of Low Carbon Cities: A Mini-Stern Review for Birmingham and the Wider Urban Region

This report reviews the cost and carbon effectiveness of a wide range of low carbon options that could be applied at a local level in households, industry, commerce and transport to expand the low carbon economy. It then goes on to explore the scope for their deployment and the associated investment needs. The report addresses financial returns, carbon savings and implications for economy and employment of a variety of low-carbon measures. More >

Distribution of Carbon Emissions in the UK: Implications for Domestic Energy Policy

The report looks at the distribution of carbon emissions across households in the UK, with emphasis on differentiating household incomes. It then goes on to assess the fairness and effectiveness of current energy policies linked to climate change, and in doing so identifies who benefits from and who pays for government energy and climate policies. More >

An independent National Adaptation Programme for England

This policy brief contributes to the National Adaptation Programme by offering an analytical framework and formulating a rational basis for thinking about adaptation. It identifies main climate vulnerabilities in the UK at present, discusses adaptation priorities, and reviews the role of government and policy in adaptation. The report concludes with an illustrative set of actions for the government to take forward into the National Adaptation Programme. More >

Green cities: Using city deals to drive low carbon growth

The aim of this report was to examine how the first eight city deals agreed in 2012 have enshrined the core cities’ aspirations for a low carbon future. This report looks at how the city deals showcase their low carbon ambitions in different ways. This is done by analysing the different approaches and their strengths, identifying the characteristics of a deal that effectively embeds the pursuit of a prosperous, resilient, low carbon future. More >

Climate change – is the UK preparing for flooding and water scarcity?

The Adaptation Sub-Committee (ASC) has a statutory duty to report regularly to Parliament on the UK Government’s progress in delivering its adaptation programme.

In their first two reports, ASC developed and piloted a toolkit to assess progress in preparing for climate change, including use of adaptation indicators. In this report the Adaptation Sub-Committee apply the toolkit at a national level to two of the largest risks to emerge from the UK’s first Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA): flooding and water scarcity. More >

‘Suburban Neighbourhood Adaptation for a Changing Climate (SNACC)’ – November 2012

This presentation documents research aiming to answer the question: how can existing suburban neighbourhoods be best adapted to reduce further impacts of climate change and withstand ongoing changes? More >

Walking and Cycling: Local measures to promote walking and cycling as forms of travel or recreation

This guidance sets out how people can be encouraged to increase the amount they walk or cycle for travel or recreation purposes. This will help meet public health and other goals (for instance, to reduce traffic congestion, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions). More >

Forces for Change Compendium

The Forces for Change is a framework to help you understand today’s radically changing world and synthesise the breadth of complex, fast changing, interdependent factors shaping the business landscape. More >

Obtaining Flood Insurance in High Risk Areas

If your property has suffered from flood damage in the past, if there is a history of flooding in your neighbourhood or you are within an identified flood risk area, it can sometimes be difficult to find insurance cover. This guide aims to provide in one place, information that will help you to obtain a suitable policy. It explains how to get specialist help and what information you may be asked to give. It also provides tips on how to reduce the impact of flooding. The final section of the guide provides useful information on key organisations, including their responsibilities and contact details. More >

‘Centro’s Green Transport Charter Annual Conference’ – May 2012

These presentations were produced for the Centro’s Green Transport Charter Annual Conference, on 25 May 2012. The aim of the presentations is to document the progression towards greener transport in the Midlands, using examples from various organisations. In addition, John Barraclough provides a presentation outlining the climate change risks for the West Midlands. More >