Author: Tim Duckmanton - Team Leader, Strategy and Environment, Lake District National Park Authority
Climate change is recognised as the key cause of environmental change in the Lake District. It will have a direct and potentially dramatic impact on what the Lake District looks like, and how its environment, society, and economy function in the future. Particularly for its residents, business communities and visitors. It will create more unpredictable and unseasonable weather patterns leading to impacts upon what is special in the National Park and what it provides to society. Many of our current species, some of which are iconic and already rare on a UK scale, will not survive in the National Park as their habitats become inhospitable to them. We predict agriculture will change and some cultural heritage and historic environment features will be under threat.
Our understanding of carbon emissions that drive climate change, and ways in which they could be reduced or ways in which we can adapt from the impacts climate change creates, has given us the foresight to plan a response.
We have worked with partners, community groups and experts in climate change science to make our original assessments on the impacts of climate change. The expertise is second to none. This has produced a comprehensive set of evidence that has helped develop joint understanding about the scale of the challenge the Lake District is facing in the future.
We think it makes stark reading about a global issue that we all need to understand and respond to. As a result the Partnership is united in wanting to make its contribution to limiting warming to within 1.5 degree centigrade.
Our assessment of these impacts has been shared with widely with partners, communities and the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership. We need to work together to find local solutions to act now and at a scale that reduces our emissions and adapts to a changing world.
We support the ambition for Cumbria to be net zero by 2037. However, achieving net zero will be extremely challenging and requires the collaboration of all partners across Cumbria to achieve.
During the development of this Plan, partners and communities have been very supportive of our plans but clear we must not disadvantage the economy of the Lake District, as it recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. We need to coordinate our work together to seek resources, promote opportunities which will reduce carbon to help us adapt to climate change and increase the resilience of the Lake District. To do this we have integrated climate action throughout each of the Plan’s other key challenges.
Imagine a Lake District rich in wildlife, a world renowned green tourist destination and wonderful place to live. That idea can be a reality if we all make a contribution and care for what is special about this place. Please tell us what you think we should do and how you can help us achieve that or may be do you own thing to help keep the Lake District safe from climate change for future generations.
