Birmingham needs to adapt to climate change, charity says
ChangeKitchen is a social enterprise which works to tackle food poverty in Birmingham
The CEO of a social enterprise in Birmingham says extreme weather impacts poorer people worse - and the city needs to adapt better to climate change.
The West Midlands has been declared as officially in drought, as a result of low rainfall and high temperatures.
Birgit Kehrer is from ChangeKitchen, which works to alleviate food poverty in Birmingham. She says there are social inequalities in how heatwaves and droughts impact those living in a city.
Birgit explains: “People living in poverty often live in big high-rise buildings that are very badly adapted for hot weather. They have less access to money to pay for electricity for fans, to even buy fans, to travel to green spaces, to go to swimming pools – all these sorts of things.
“Birmingham really needs to look at how it can support everyone in society to have better climate adaptability. I think in Birmingham we need more ways in colling ourselves down in safe ways.”
She is calling for open water around Birmingham to be made safe and accessible to help people cope in the heat, saying: “People do need access to water to cool down. That’s what they do in the rest of the world when it’s hot. We need proper access to open water swimming, supported by well-trained lifeguards.
“Definitely globally and in Europe, this is much more of a normal thing to give people access to open water. Free spaces as well that anyone can afford, to help people stay cool in this hot weather.”
The Environment Agency has said seven areas of central, eastern and southern England – around half of the country – have been declared as officially in drought.
The announcement was made as parts of the UK experience their fourth heatwave of the summer, with temperatures reaching into the 30s in some places.
There were record-breaking heatwaves in May and June, and a third earlier this month, which have hit agriculture, rivers and the natural environment, prompted widespread wildfires and led to hosepipe bans for millions of people.