Your city is a sponge

Hear how urban planners are confronting the effects of global warming on our climate podcast adaptation episode. Cities are where most of us live. They’re also where we’re most likely to be affected by climate change in the form of increasingly frequent floods and super-high temperatures, both of which are a big cost to the economy and, even worse, cause death. So, if we can agree that we don’t want people in our cities to die faster than they already do, let’s look at what we can do to reduce the impact of climate change on urban areas. This episode of the Climate Solutions podcast tells you about some of the big projects going on in this area, in particular in some cities you may know—Florence in Italy, and Athens in Greece, with brief stops in the Netherlands, Spain and France. At the end of the episode, you’ll bet a checklist of things you can do to help your city cope with climate change. Subscribe to the entire series of Climate Solutions from the European Investment Bank, the EU climate bank. Learn what you should do to fight climate change in the oceans, on the road, in your home and even on your digital devices. In this episode you’ll find out: ·        What is climate mitigation? It’s something that cuts the amount of greenhouse gas emitted, such as a wind farm or an energy efficiency renovation. ·        What is climate adaptation? This is a project that doesn’t necessarily change the amount of greenhouse gas emitted, but instead focuses on helping a city cope with the effects of climate change. We look at a project in Florence that deals with adaptation to the increasing flooding caused by climate change. ·        What’s the difference between climate mitigation and adaptation? ·        What is Green-Blue infrastructure? Green-Blue infrastructure is a city planning term that means incorporating natural landscapes into public spaces (green) and combining them with good water management (blue). If you’ve got something to say about climate in general or this podcast in particular, let me know @EIBMatt on Twitter. And don’t forget to subscribe to Climate Solutions. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy