COP26 Mini-Series: Climate Change Showcase

With the 26^th United Nations Climate Change conference, commonly known as COP26, taking place in Glasgow between 31^st of October and 12^th of November, we want to showcase how some of our projects are helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change and make nature and people more resilient to the warming that is already affecting our environment.

With greenhouse gasses causing average global temperatures to rise – we are already 1^oC above pre-industrial levels and rising – there are profound impacts on our landscapes: flooding, drought, sea level rise, spread of invasive alien species and threats to native flora and fauna that are struggling to adapt to the changes in their environment caused by climate change. Many of our projects are helping to reduce the impact of climate change on landscapes and the animals, plants and people living there.

Terrestrial and marine environments, and the organisms that inhabit them, play a huge part in regulating the earth’s temperature, for example plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and ecosystems such as forests, macroalgae beds and peat bogs form significant carbon stores. Protecting and restoring these ecosystems is one way that the ELP’s projects are mitigating climate change.

During COP26 we will be interviewing a selection of our project partners to find out how their work ties in with the climate change conference, and what they are doing to help mitigate or build their resilience to climate change.

1^st November: Restoring peat bogs in the Cairngorms. We’ll read how restoration of degraded, high altitude peat bogs is sequestering carbon and reducing emissions as well as storing water helping to regulate flows in streams and rivers.

3^rd November: Restaurant menus change to adapt to sea temperature rise in the Medditerranian. We will learn how warmer sea temperatures have supported the invasion of invasive species which have stripped away the carbon storing macroalgae beds vital to the Turkish coastal habitat, and how changing restaurant culture is turning the tide on these invasive fish.

5^th November: Natural solutions to protect the Humber Estuary from sea-level rise. We will find out how industrial renovation can go hand in hand with natural measures to adapt to sea-level rise, and interconnection of wetland habitats can be successful in urban areas.

8^th November: Adapting southern Portugal to protect key species and communities. We will discover how a vulnerable area of southern Portugal can adapt to a changing climate, and protect key species such as the Iberian lynx and Iberian imperial eagle.

10^th November: Nature-based Solutions for climate change mitigation and ecosystem restoration. We will learn how landscape restoration can deliver benefits for biodiversity and climate change mitigation, whilst providing socio-economic opportunities for local communities