Climate Solutions E-Book

• Herausgeber: European Investment Bank
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 98

Beschreibung

Climate change is the biggest threat humanity faces. So big, in fact, that it is sometimes hard to know what each of us, as individuals, can do to counter it. Climate Solutions details the challenges, lays out the solutions and shows you which ones you can make part of your life. Written by experts at the EU climate bank, each chapter helps you figure out what you can do in areas that range from how you get around to what you eat, from protecting our oceans and rivers to ensuring that your digital devices do not damage the environment.

Leseprobe

Climate Solutions:

Why climate is the world’s most pressing challenge—and what you can do about it

About the European Investment Bank

The European Investment Bank is the world’s biggest multilateral lender. The only bank owned by and representing the interests of the EU countries, the EIB finances Europe’s economic growth. Over six decades the Bank has backed start-ups like Skype and massive schemes like the Øresund Bridge linking Sweden and Denmark. Headquartered in Luxembourg, the EIB Group includes the European Investment Fund, a specialist financer of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 The city as a sponge

Urban development

Chapter 2 Your stomach can save humanity

Agriculture and food

Chapter 3 When climate action means better roads

Development and adaptation

Chapter 4 The fast way to save energy

Energy efficiency

Chapter 5 Confucius and green finance

Green financial markets

Chapter 6 Working with nature

Biodiversity

Chapter 7 Investment to save the seas

The blue economy

Chapter 8 The road to Utopia

Urban transport

Introduction

Werner Hoyer

Climate change is a challenge to humanity so great, that it is hard to know what each of us, as individuals and institutions, can do to counter it. Climate Solutions details the challenges, lays out solutions and indicates which ones you can make part of your life.

Climate action is already part of life at the European Investment Bank. The EU bank is committing an increasing share of its impressive resources to the fight against climate change. We pledged to invest $100 billion in climate action between 2016 and 2020 – and we are well on course to hit that target. Since 2012, the European Investment Bank has shown that it is, indeed, the EU climate bank with €127 billion in climate action investment. Even farther back, in 2007, the European Investment Bank invented green bonds, an innovative financial tool designed to attract more investment to climate projects. Green bonds are now a €700 billion market set to grow still more. (Read about them in Chapter 5.)

Of course, finance may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the climate crisis. You are more likely to conjure up images of melting ice caps, tropical storms and grasslands turned to desert, or simply to remember that you were hotter last summer than ever before in your life. But if we are truly to confront global warming and its devastating results, we need to finance greater use of renewable energy and energy efficiency products. We have to invest in brand new climate technologies, too, which means engaging with the startups developing these innovations. This is what the engineers, economists, loan officers and risk management specialists at the European Investment Bank are working on, and we are expanding our partnerships in every possible corner of the financial world to maximise our effectiveness in this existential battle.

As the EU’s climate bank, the European Investment Bank finances a full range of climate action. The experts who work on our climate projects are the authors of the chapters in this book. The experience they have built over the years makes them highly effective in delivering the investment needed to tackle the climate crisis. It also gives them insights into the kinds of everyday actions you can take. Because we want to work in partnership with you, too.

In each of the chapters of this book, our experts share their knowledge. They will help you figure out what you can do in areas that range from how you get around to what you eat, from protecting our oceans and rivers to cutting the energy consumption of your home. You might also learn to love the weeds in your garden or windowboxes (in Chapter 6).

The European Investment Bank has ambitious climate action plans for the next, crucial decade. I hope this book will increase your awareness of the issues facing all of us across the globe – and give you some ideas about how you can contribute to the solution.

Werner Hoyer is President of the European Investment Bank

Chapter 1

Urban development

The city as a sponge

Leonor Berriochoa Alberola and Giulia Macagno

Urban climate adaptation is the next step for cities that need to protect themselves – and their citizens – against the inevitable effects of climate change. Here are some ideas about how to do it.

The risk of floods and other increasingly extreme weather events is a major headache for planners in historic cities, who can do little to change the dense, narrow streets of old centres.

That’s why Florence, whose centre is about as historic as they get, is putting into effect a plan to create areas around the Ema, a tributary of the city’s biggest river, the Arno, that will sop up future floods like a sponge. When the river isn’t in flood, these areas will be parks to be enjoyed by citizens.

It’s a clever plan and it’s something that more and more cities all over the world are going to be doing. Cities are adapting to the consequences of climate change with nature-based solutions that also make the city more attractive and pleasant for residents.

The European Investment Bank has a long relationship with Florence, making many loans to the Tuscan city over the decades. Recently the bank has responded to the climate crisis by encouraging all kinds of borrowers to think about what it means for them. In the case of cities, of course there are some obvious measures that can be taken. Buildings can be made more energy efficient, for example, with better insulation, heating systems and windows. Meanwhile, energy can be generated through solar panels, rather than through polluting fuels.

A role for urban climate adaptation

Energy efficiency and renewable energy schemes fall into the category of climatemitigation. They reduce the net emissions of greenhouse gases and, thus, counter global warming head on. That’s important, because most of the emissions heating up the global climate come from cities.

But cities also need to face up to the often disastrous impact of climate change as it already affects them – and as it’s likely to continue to affect them in coming decades, even under the most favourable scenarios. Thisadaptation to climate change is important in cities, because of the economic and social consequences of floods or extreme heatwaves on unprepared populations.

None of this is easy. Every mayor knows their city has to adapt and is developing climate strategies. But the implementation and financing of climate-resilient projects is a challenge. Technical and financial teams in public administration need to work together to:

•understand climate risks and vulnerabilities

•integrate into projects the right improvements and safeguards to protect the city against climate change

•understand the budgetary framework to finance these new resilient projects.

The Hub for urban climate adaptation

Here’s how the European Investment Bank worked with the City of Florence on the definition of its climate strategy and climate-resilient projects that could be financed by the Bank.

Through the European Investment Advisory Hub, a partnership between the bank and the European Commission, we recruited a consultant to work with the Florence municipality to improve upon a planned flood protection scheme, so that it would also tackle additional climate change risks. The study aimed to create new Green-Blue infrastructure on the Ema to:

•reduce heat island effects

•improve the Ema’s water quality

•improve sustainable mobility with bicycle paths connecting local towns and nearby cultural sites

•reduce urban runoff and potential water pollution

•provide alternative water resources in case of water scarcity

•increase biodiversity.

Thus, the study developed a plan to improve the capacity of the area around the Ema outside the city centre to absorb rising water levels. This would lead to less damaging floods in the city centre.

With the consultant’s help, Florence coordinated with two smaller municipalities on its borders and developed a project that utilises a park around the banks of the Ema for a nature-based solution to the problem. Instead of building concrete tanks to collect flood water, they built hills and valleys in a park that can absorb the flood and, when there’s no flooding, double as a place for recreation, including bike paths.

The adaptation project may be included in an existing €225 million loan from the European Investment Bank that will help finance other urban infrastructure schemes.

What is Green-Blue infrastructure?

Green-Blue infrastructure is a city planning term that means incorporating natural landscapes into public spaces (green) and combining them with good water management (blue).

How to replicate adaptation projects for unique urban challenges

Florence’s adaptation project is a good one. Like most adaptation measures, it also doesn’t eat up too much of the city’s budget.

But it required a lot of thinking, because each city’s adaptation solution is unique.

Cities need to bring in an expert to suggest tailor-made solutions. That’s the difficulty of adaptation. There are a lot of things that can be done, yet it’s hard to identify the most cost-effective and most suitable solution in any specific case, because the climate risks and vulnerabilities are unique for each project. Some cities don’t have the internal resources for this and they may need external specialists.

How unique is each adaptation project? Some things apply everywhere, of course. If there’s a risk of floods, one common adaptation practice is to put heating and air-conditioning machinery on the roof, instead of in the basement where it can be inundated by water. However, when it comes to the design of public infrastructure, things become more complicated.

Here are a few unique examples that we’ve noticed either through projects we have worked on or from observing how cities are dealing with the challenge:

•Growing grass or trees in the south of Spain is a challenge, because of low rainfall. In Malaga, it wasn’t feasible to plant trees to provide shade for citizens. So the municipality put up large parasols in pedestrian areas. The result: people go out even in the sunshine, which is good for business, tourism and social life.

•Barcelona saved a lot on climate adaptation measures for social housing projects, just by finding the right orientation of the buildings to create cross-ventilation and to maximise the exposure to the sun at the right time.

•In Paris, air-quality measures were presented to residents less as a climate issue and more as a matter of health, which made them popular even with people who would have been unwilling to accept them just for the sake of climate action.

•Rotterdam is taking away paved areas of the city. Those impermeable surfaces, which do not allow water to drain away fast enough, are being replaced with sand, soil and plants. The aim is to use the city as a sponge, retaining water for later use.

There are a lot of options that are relatively low-cost. Cities are testing things out, because adaptation is clearly a field of urban development that will be increasingly important.

The key element that we always drive home in our consultations with cities is that adaptation should be part of an integrated plan. Random, small interventions can add a lot of value, particularly in cities where there is little new development. However, as long as the masterplan doesn’t take adaptation fully into account, then it’s difficult to make the city truly resilient to climate change.

Urban climate adaptation in Athens

Athens is a good example of a city that has really made adaptation central to its resilience strategy.

The urban fabric of Athens is made up of dense constructions that cover 80% of the city’s surface. So much asphalt and concrete retains heat during the extended heatwaves to which the city is increasingly exposed. These urban heat islands