ISBA

6 Wildfires in Greece saw mass evacuations www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58141336 or www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cxng76w24ekt/greece-wildfires Wildfires in Turkey: Early August 2021 reports stated nearly 160,000 hectares of forest had burned in Turkey this year, according to the European Forest Fire Information System, four times the average between 2008 and 2020. www.economist.com/europe/2021/08/07/turkeys-deadly-fires-raise-the-heat-for-erdogan Flooding in NYC: Record rainfall hit New York City after Storm Ida in September 2021, killing more than 50 people: www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-58418627 Floods in Germany: climate crisis made deadly German floods ‘up to nine times more likely’ www.theguardian.com/ environment/2021/aug/23/climate- crisis-made-deadly-german-floods- up-to-nine-times-more-likely As we approach COP26 – the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference – due to take place from 1-12 November 2021 in Glasgow, there is a focus on reducing carbon emissions and achieving net zero. But as the Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk Advice to Government Report states, net zero alone is not enough. It says “reducing climate impacts requires both emissions reduction and adaptation. The UK will face significant further changes in climate to 2050 and beyond, even if the world is on a Paris-aligned emissions trajectory (which was 1.5C). By 2050 the heatwave summer of 2018 will be a typical summer, summer rainfall could fall by as much as 24 percent and winter rainfall increase by as much as 16 percent, changes that will impact our wellbeing, the natural environment and the economy. Climate change has arrived”. Autumn 2021 | Environmental sustainability www.theisba.org.uk