The green-fingered Warwickshire cricketers showing how we can tackle future flooding

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has advised the government at a minimum to prepare the country for the weather extremes due if global temperatures reach 2°C above pre-industrial levels by 2050. This is 0.5°C above the limit set out in the 2015 Paris agreement. Faster rates of warming than 2°C by 2050 remain possible, the Committee cautions, and additional warming beyond 2050 is currently expected.

The country was "not yet adapted" to worsening weather extremes already occurring, "let alone" what is expected to come, the CCC writes. The letter, sent during Flood Action Week, sets out what a well-adapted UK should look like — a country where food security and infrastructure are protected, vital public services continue to operate normally during extreme weather, and economic growth remains “climate-resilient”.

“It is the most vulnerable people and places that will be most impacted by climate change,” says the CCC. “A well-adapted UK is one that understands when and where adaptation can be targeted to those most at risk”.

Projects in Warwickshire and across the West Midlands show what effective adaptation to increased flooding and hotter summers could look like.

Fillongley Cricket Club in North Warwickshire has been going through a green transformation since 2018, when it secured ownership of its pitch and a package of land alongside including a field and a long-neglected pond.

Working with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust with funding from the Bournebrook Flood Reduction Scheme, the club devised a plan to prevent flooding to Fillongley village on lower ground to the east, such as happened in March 2016 after 25mm of overnight rain.

Measures implemented included planting 20 parkland trees (such as oak, beech, black poplar and hawthorn), 30 fruit trees, more than 100 metres of hedge and a wildflower meadow, and restoring and dredging the pond.

The extra field was converted into a second pitch where the third team and women’s side could play, bringing the whole club together in one place. “To be honest, I was most passionate about getting the third team back here, but I wanted to do it in a way that was environmentally friendly,” says the club’s Stephen Gardner.

Wildlife has been drawn to the site including deer, buzzards and red kites, though for Gardner the stars are the owls that players can see hunting over the ground in the middle of matches.

The club has installed 14kW of solar panels to the pavilion roof to power its showers and light the clubhouse. “Our electricity bill is now virtually nothing - we export power to the Grid” says Gardner.

Fillongley CC has won multiple awards for its work including the England and Wales Cricket Board’s first Sustainability award last year and The Cricketer magazine’s UK's Greenest Ground competition, and it has signed up to the UN Sports for Climate Action commitment to sustainability in sport.

Meanwhile in Birmingham, charity Birmingham TreePeople has used mapping tools to prioritise tree planting in inner-city areas with low tree cover and high levels of tree loss.

The charity focuses on ‘tree equity,’ which is about equality of access to trees for people in all neighbourhoods.

Bringing an area up to 25% tree canopy cover leads to a significant reduction in stormwater and surface water flooding, compared to having few trees, as well as sequestering more carbon in leaves, roots and branches. Average tree canopy cover for the city is estimated at 15%, but in some wards it is as low as 5%. Residents with trees outside their homes benefit from urban shade, air cooling and air quality interception.

In Alum Rock, Birmingham TreePeople has worked with a group of Muslim women passionate about improving local streets from the Go-Woman! Alliance and Count Me In Forum, planting ginkgo, sweet gum and pecan trees, and getting residents involved in tree walks and litter picks.

Go-Women! Alliance vice-chair Nasreen Nawaz says: “What the TreePeople are doing is amazing as it’s showing we need to care about our communities, we need to care about the future. A lot of trees have fallen and are damaged and they need to be replaced”.

Community engagement lead Katy Hawkins says Birmingham TreePeople always has the longer-term in mind, with a target to ensure newly-planted trees will prosper for 80 years or more. "I want tree planting to be good and people to feel proud,” Hawkins says. x8g3qyt