Thames Water has published a progress report on its progress in adapting to the current and future predicted effects of climate change on their organisation- the report was invited by Defra under the adaptation reporting power in the Climate Change Act 2008.
Introducing the report, Martin Baggs - CEO, Thames Water said:
"The projected impacts of climate change in south-east England will compound a difficult situation where water resources are already stressed and the population is increasing more rapidly than forecast. We need to find ways of responding to this dual challenge in a positive and equitable way, ensuring that our responses deliver for our customers and contribute to our wider aspiration of becoming a more sustainable business."
"Since our first report in 2011 we’ve experienced a prolonged period of drought. We’ve also had the wettest summer since 1912 and the wettest winter in 250 years, leading to an extended and widespread period of flooding in the south of England. Each of these extreme weather events made delivering the service our customers expect very challenging. And very recently the intense flooding in the north of England has provided yet another reminder of the potentially devastating consequences of extreme weather. Although it is not possible to attribute these weather events to man-made climate change, they represent the type of weather we expect to see more regularly in the future."
"Planning for issues like flooding resilience extremely difficult"
He went on to say that it is widely accepted that climate change is a real issue and a major challenge to society. However, it’s almost impossible to predict the extent and timing of its impact. This makes planning for issues like flooding resilience extremely difficult as we do not want to invest inefficiently - in the wrong areas, or at the wrong time."
Referring to the winter of 2013/14 which saw the UK hit by a succession of extreme winter storms which caused widespread flooding, and the droughts of 2012 when Thames was forced to introduce water restrictions, the report says the events highlighted the importance of the company's ability to adapt to the various impacts of climate change.
Thames Water is taking a twin-track approach to manage the unavoidable impacts of climate change on the business combined with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, The report sets out the utility's climate change principles:
- Incorporate the latest climate change assessments and understanding into our business planning processes
- Continue to assess how climate change affects our operations and operational sites and develop appropriate responses
- Work with eight2 O, our business partners, contractors and supply chain to increase resilience to the impacts of climate change Implement our statutory Water Resource Management Plan to safeguard water supplies from the impact of climate change, with particular focus on leakage control, metering and water efficiency and the development of new water resources
- Engage with and seek support from our customers for our resilience/adaptation and mitigation responses
- Review and improve the resilience of our sites to flooding
Important for supply chain to understand impacts of climate change on business resilience
The report says Thames wants the contractors and suppliers in its supply chain to understand the potential impacts of weather and climate change on its business resilience and put in place plans to respond, together with understanding its carbon footprint and put in place plans which reduce the carbon intensity of the goods and services it provides. As part of this the utility developed and provided leaflets to its top 200 suppliers by volume, to help explain what climate change mitigation and adaptation means to Thames Water.
In the last reporting period (2011), the water company identified that climate change projections alone are not useful for strategic asset and investment planning. Instead, Thames has been working with leading researchers to understand the climate sensitivity of its systems and develop decision-making threshold points which trigger adaptation responses. This included the commissioning of a project to improve understanding of current and potential future flood risk to its water and wastewater sites.
Other activities undertaken by Thames to date include:
- Improved its understanding of sensitivity and thresholds across the water system - supported by involvement in numerous interdisciplinary research projects that consider adapting water and wastewater systems to climate change.
- Improved the flood resilience of water and wastewater sites and networks - including the development of Sustainable Drainage Systems and Catchment Management approaches
- Reduced its dependence on energy from the grid and increased wider resilience through improved energy efficiency and increased self-generation of energy at wastewater sites
Commenting on customers, stakeholders and materiality issues, the report says that Thames is actively seeking to engage its customers and stakeholders on climate change, including the supply chain. The utility's capital delivery partner eight2 O has also incorporated Thames Water’s Performance Commitments on climate change adaptation into its suite of metrics for 2015-2020, together with a number of others relating to resilience more widely.
Temperature rise, drought, flooding and sea level rise are main climate change risks
The report highlights temperature rise, drought, flooding and sea level rise as the main climate change risks to the following areas:
Water Resources - Planned adaptation actions in response to these risks include:
- Collaborative water resources management planning (as a member of the Water Resources in the South-East)
- Continued research into the effective use of probabilistic climate change projections
- Continued initiatives to improve water efficiency such as smart metering, customer demand management and leakage reduction
- Engagement in a new ‘21st Century Initiative’ that will consider a definition of water resources resilience, what Thames should do to ensure resilience and what Ofwat should do to ensure resilience
Water Treatment Works and Networks - The report says Thames has invested heavily in an improved data monitoring and management system which will help increase understanding of the sensitivity of water treatment to these climate risks and other external drivers and enable the company to optimise treated water operations. Other planned adaptation actions in response to these risks include: replacing water mains and improving how leaks are targetted and extending a 1-in-200-year standard of flood resilience until the 2040s to priority water treatment works and pumping stations.
Wastewater Treatment Works and Networks - Again, the report says Thames has invested heavily in efforts to improve the flood resilience of its wastewater networks and treatment and has helped lead UKWIR studies for modelling the impacts of climate change on sewage networks. Planned adaptation actions in response to these risks include extending a 1-in-200-year standard of flood resilience until the 2040s to priority sewage treatment works.
Interdependencies with other services and sectors are key issues
The report has also flagged up interdependencies and the fact that Thames Water services are dependent on other systems, which in turn are also dependent on its services. While interdependencies can help to build resilience, they can also increase vulnerabilities, it says. Thames Water says it is both working to reduce its dependence on other sectors and actively support a number of wider resilience partnerships and forums. This includes heavy investment in sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) to reduce the risk of sewer flooding and increasing the amount of renewable energy produced from 170GWh (accredited and non-accredited) to 400GWH by 2020. This will be achieved predominantly through generation of renewable electricity from the treatment of sewage sludge and will help reduce Thames Water's dependency on the grid and increase resilience.
The report concludes by saying that Thames has made good progress since the first report and has integrated climate change into its business planning process, highlighting the following progress to date:
- Reviewed and improved flooding resilience at 17 significant water and wastewater sites
- Commissioned a desalination plant which can produce up to 150 million litres per day of potable water to improve the resilience of water availability at times of drought
- Delivered a range of demand-side measures to reduce water consumption
- Met leakage targets for the last nine years
- Established clear goals to improve resilience to flooding and water availability and reduce dependence on energy from the grid Developed new methods to understand the sensitivity of business activities to the impacts of climate change
However, Thames Water added:
"We appreciate we have more work to do, and know we cannot deliver climate resilience on our own. For example, we want to build better relationships with our supply chain and other partners, based on a shared understand of the risks associated with their activities and the impact they have on our ability to deliver the essential service to our customers."
The report says Thames is already thinking ahead and planning how best to address climate change impacts in AMP 7 (2020-25).
Click here to download Thames Water’s progress in planning for climate change