IGNITION - Innovative financinG aNd delIvery of naTural clImate sOlutioNs in Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester faces frequent extreme weather events like downpours, heatwaves and droughts, which are all projected to increase in frequency and intensity due to climate change. Current data suggests that around 250,000 properties across Greater Manchester are currently at risk of surface-water flooding and around 50,000 properties have a 1 in 100 chance of flooding in any given year. In December 2015, 31,200 properties lost their power supply and repairs to infrastructure damaged by flooding cost €13m alone. Increased temperatures have also doubled the number of heat stress incidents since the 1950s, affecting vulnerable citizens in particular, and storms now account for more than 20% of all weather events across the region. Many sealed surfaces in the urban areas of Greater Manchester have exacerbated the problems of urban floods and heat waves. More greenspace and nature-based solutions (NBS) could partly mitigate these impacts. Greater Manchester feels that the solutions to these challenges lie in substantial retrofit programmes of urban green infrastructure and nature-based solutions (NBS) to combat urban over-heating (provision of shade and evaporative cooling) and flooding.

A major challenge identified is a lack of municipal funding which the IGNITION project has addressed by developing innovative business models and funding schemes. A pre-condition to make such schemes work has been to gain the confidence of public and private investors on the effectiveness as well as multiple benefits of nature-based solutions.

During its implementation, the UIA project has capitalised on its experience so that it can be shared with peers. The outputs displayed on this page are the result of this process.