Now is the time for a global plan to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are off-track halfway towards their 2030 deadline, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday in New York. 

Today we are in London for a policy insights and networking event at the London School of Economics and Political Science funded by the British Academy and co- organised by our Research Director, Dr Andrea Armstrong (Silent Spring Consultants), Dr Andrew Kythreotis (Lincoln University) and Dr Candice Howarth (PCAN, LSE).

The United Kingdom is known for its rich cultural heritage, spanning centuries of history. However, this heritage is facing an unprecedented threat - climate change. As temperatures rise, sea levels increase, and extreme weather events become more frequent, the UK's historic buildings, landscapes, and archaeological sites are at risk. In this article, we will explore the impact of climate change on the UK's heritage and look at the measures that can bee taken to protect it.

Earlier this week we were invited to visit the Bosco Verticale (vertical forest) and BAM public park in the Porta Nuova District of Milan, Italy. Bosco Verticale is a pair of innovative residential towers designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti and completed in 2014. The towers are covered with approximately 900 trees, 5,000 shrubs, and 11,000 floral plants, creating a lush and self-sustaining vertical forest. 

Earlier this week, the UK government unveiled its third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) which sets out a strategic five-year plan to boost resilience and protect people, homes, businesses and our cultural heritage against climate change risks such as flooding, drought and heatwaves.

World temperature records were broken earlier this week when the average global temperature hit 17.18C. Experts expect the record to be broken again very soon because data suggests, that this year’s warmest days are still to come – and with them the warmest days ever recorded. Until the start of this week, the hottest day on record was in 2016, during the last El Niño global weather event, when the global average temperature reached 16.92C.

Dr Andrea Armstrong, Research Director of Silent Spring Consultants was invited to attend the Place-Based Climate Action Network (PCAN) Conference at the Royal Society in London. She saw a fantastic array of speakers, keynotes, panel discussions and breakout sessions together with over 150 other attendees. 

The first heatwaves of 2023 in Belgium  and the UK have been officially declared.

Today a delegation of Silent Spring Consultants visited Cambridge to explore new collaboration opportunities with a wide range of potential partners who share our vision for a more sustainable and climate friendly future. 

We are delighted that 'The 2022 heatwaves: England’s response and future preparedness for heat risk' Policy Brief was published yesterday and attracted a lot of media attention. Starting last summer, during the heatwaves of 2022, SSC worked in collaboration with colleagues from the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change - London School of Economics and Political Science, the Place-Based Climate Action Network (PCAN) and the Red Cross.

Tomorrow, 26 May 2023, Dr Andrea Armstrong and Mr Wim Pulinx are delighted to join esteemed colleagues at the European Forum for Urban Forestry. This year the conference theme is Urban Forests as Nature Based Solutions (UF-NBS) and they will be presenting their paper on "Managing Military Urban Forests: Case Study of Kamp Beverlo, Belgium". 

Each year, the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies funds several projects led by VUB research groups and researchers. Each of the awarded projects engages with the broad field of urban studies and with concepts linked to inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives on cities and ‘the urban’, comparative urbanism and engaged research connecting academia with other actors and networks. One of the winners of the 2023 edition is Silent Spring Consultants with the following project: