If approved, it will be implemented with immediate effect, setting out over 120 specific actions to strengthen the city's resilience to the effects of climate change – from flooding and high temperatures to food security and water supply.
The Plan has been developed through the city's independent Climate Change Board, whose Adaptation and Resilience Pathway Group – chaired by the Environment Agency – includes representatives from across the public, private and voluntary sectors.
This collaborative approach ensures that the breadth of expertise, resources and local knowledge needed to address complex climate risks is brought together under a single, coordinated framework.
Among the actions being taken forward are:
- Community food growing and resilience – developing community food growing areas across the city, alongside training and community cooking activities to support local food networks and reduce dependence on global supply chains
- Neighbourhood resilience groups – building local resilience in communities at greatest risk, with focus groups already held in Hillfields, Foleshill, Longford and Radford, and plans to establish a pilot neighbourhood programme
- Green infrastructure and urban drainage – creating sustainable drainage schemes, rain gardens and new green spaces, particularly in deprived neighbourhoods, to reduce flood risk, support water conservation and cool urban areas during periods of extreme heat
- Business resilience support – providing guidance to local businesses to develop risk assessments and continuity plans to protect the local economy and workforce
- Infrastructure resilience – working with major infrastructure providers to audit climate risks to energy, water, transport and digital networks and identify solutions
- Housing improvement – research and enforcement activity to reduce climate-related risks in homes, including heat, damp and mould, alongside promotion of retrofit grants for private landlords
The Plan also recognises the importance of green spaces and biodiversity, with commitments to create nature corridors, plant trees in urban areas and convert neglected or vacant land into community green space.
Coventry was also invited by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to contribute to the development of the Government's Fourth
National Adaptation Plan – recognition of the quality and rigour of the city's approach to climate adaptation planning.
Coventry's adaptation and resilience planning process has been independently assessed at Level 3 – rated as Efficient Management – with a target set to reach Level 4, the level of delivering Breakthrough Projects, in the coming year.
The Council has also supported the West Midlands Combined Authority and the University of Birmingham in developing a regional Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment tool, which maps climate vulnerability down to neighbourhood level across the region.
Councillor Jim O'Boyle, Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change, said: “The impacts of a changing climate are already being felt in Coventry and across the country, and the question for us as a city is how well prepared we are to respond.
“This plan is the result of serious, sustained work by over fifteen organisations who recognise that this is too big a challenge for any one body to tackle alone.
“By working together – sharing expertise, pooling resources and taking coordinated action – we can make Coventry a more resilient city and better protect our residents, our businesses and our communities, particularly those who are most vulnerable.”
Cllr O’Boyle added: “This is about practical action, not just talking about it.”
Progress on delivery of the Plan will be reviewed annually by the Council and its partners, with a major review in 2030.
