Objective 7: Managing climate change risk

BU’s Climate Change Risk Register sits within our Environment and Energy Management System and documents the risks posed to our operations because of climate change. As these risks become more common its vital that we progress mitigation and adaptation measures via our CECAP whilst also further embedding understanding of these risks across BU.

Our Climate Change Risk Register includes a range of scenarios including extreme flooding events, hot weather events, low temperature incidents, wildfires, failure of national/regional electricity, gas, water supply and IT infrastructure, failure/disruption of supply chains and infectious diseases. It includes details of the impact and mitigation measures as well as the adaptations required in the short, medium and long term. All these risks feed across the CECAP: for example, adaptation to the risk of Extreme Flooding Events is aligned with our building standards where all new builds must include rainwater harvesting. Similarly for hot weather events our Biodiversity Group have been considering opportunities for tree planting, building shading through canopies and other window shading techniques to reduce impact on campus users.

New risks

2022 has brought increased risks which we have embedded into the BU risk management process. Specifically, we have added two new risks into the estates risk register:

1) External Factors including Russia/ Ukraine conflict and global energy crisis is impacting supply of gas and causing prices to rise for gas and electricity. And

2) Russia/ Ukraine conflict and global energy crisis is impacting supply of gas and electricity which could cause gas shortages and/ or power cuts in 2022-2023. The identification of these risks has prompted activities to prepare for scenarios and ensure that BU is best able to continue providing education and research.

Learning across the university sector

BU are members of the EAUC Managing Climate Risk Community of Practice. This is a place for universities to share their work around climate risk and learn from each other. This year Lois Betts, BU Sustainability Manager and Shona Nairn Smith, Head of Operations and Resilience have attended online workshops with other universities.

Discussions have included how to get climate change listed on university corporate risk registers, which many universities are grappling with. We have also explored case studies from other universities about their approach to specific climate risks such as flooding and energy resilience. Recent discussions have also commenced about climate risk specifically related to sports management which will be important for BU and our Chapel Gate sports facilities.

AFRICAB: building resilience in Sierra Leone

Our Disaster Management Centre continued its AFRICAB project based in West Africa, which seeks to assimilate, accommodate, reduce and overcome resistance factors in order to enhance the governance of disaster risk and enable disaster management frameworks to function more efficiently. The three-year project has been based on constructive cooperation with disaster management partners in Sierra Leone, including the newly created National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) and Freetown City Council (FCC), and involved extensive field research and practitioner engagement.

The project, led by Professor Lee Miles, has produced numerous impacts that have and are likely to continue to enhance disaster management in Sierra Leone. At the national level, the AFRICAB Final Report included eight thematic areas and 27 key recommendations for national policymakers and stakeholders. The report was launched on 30 September 2021 and was endorsed by Chief Minister Jacob Jusu Saffa and Director General of NDMA, Lt Gen (Rtd) Brima Sesay. You can download the report here.