At CIVIC SQUARE we are beginning to unpack and explore the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Climate Change 2022 as a team to re-ground ourselves in where we stand at present, predictions and projections for changes in the near future and how we might design for adaptation as we transition. What does a 1.5 degree temperature increase mean for our neighbourhoods?How do we prepare for that, whilst also doing the deep work to re-imagine more broadly?
Individual makers and organisers in our team are the driving force behind this publication, instigating the co-creation of this printed zine in April 2022, which has been contributed to by us as individuals, expressing, collating, and sharing our findings from the report, along with warmly and openly invited contributions from neighbours and friends.
This is an early way for us to begin to process the realities of this important IPCC report together, the content of which links directly to our purpose as an organisation - climate adaptation as a system, at our chosen scale: the neighbourhood. The IPCC report might feel complex and overwhelming, the science might feel impenetrable. So, how do we hat tip the volunteer superhero scientists around the world for this deep work, and roll our sleeves up together to interpret, understand, unpack and join the movement creatively?
As Kate Raworth says “the complexity doesn’t go away if you ignore it”. We know we must not ignore these reports. We are sharing our initial responses in the open to invite interaction from those who may or may not be familiar with the report, and to share next ways forward together.
Rob Lockley
Rach Bromfield
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Sanna Ali
“I read about geographies and how adversely and disproportionately the climate crisis is affecting communities that have little to do with damaging the earth in the first place. I really wanted to share the concept of it being still in 'hand' to fix if we're willing to sit together.”
Rob Lockley
Immy Kaur
Byng
Magda Petford
Khadijah Carberry
Rob Lockley
Jack Rutter-Matthews
Charlotte Bailey
Nettes Derbyshire
Anneka Deva
Sarah Ali
Kavita Purohit
Magda Petford
Daniel Blyden
Nikki Bi
Alice Hindson-Matthews
”For these pages I took quotes from Chapter 5 of the IPCC Working Group II's 2022 report, entitled Food, Fibre and Ecosystem Products. The chapter talks about the risks to our global food systems due to climate change. One part of the solution discussed is Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture (UAP) which means growing food in cities and suburbs.”
”I hoped to reimagine what a street or neighbourhood might look like if every available space were used for growing food, on walls, rooftops, balconies and streets. Growing food in cities requires a huge change in city planning, and can have important consequences, protecting us from heat stress and food system collapse, creating homes for biodiversity, and reducing emissions from food transport.”
Khadijah Carberry
Samlia Miah
”This entry comes from Chapter 6 of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report: Risk To Cities, Settlements And Key Infrastructure.”
*City and local governments are key amongst multiple actors facilitating climate change adaptation in cities and settlements (medium confidence).
City and local governments can invest directly and work in partnership with community, private sector and national agencies to address climate risk. Private and business investment in key infrastructure, housing construction and through insurance requirements can also drive widespread adaptive action, though at times excluding the priorities of the poor (medium confidence).
Networked community actions can also go beyond neighbourhood-scale improvements to address widespread vulnerability. Such actions include fostering roles of intermediaries and multiple spaces for networked governance across scales of decision making, improving development processes through an understanding of social and economic systems, foresight, experimentation and embedded solutions, and social learning.
Transnational networks of local government can also enhance city level capacity, share lessons and advocacy.*
Building on from themes of grounding, the safe and just space and planetary boundaries across 3 co-creation weeks so far, we are using the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Climate Change 2022 as a starting point and key reference for framing Neighbourhood Doughnut Co-creation Week #4.
Join us Monday 30th May — Friday 3rd June 2022 as part of a year- long journey to get to the heart of new economics possibilities for our neighbourhoods and the movements to craft and build them, as we move towards sharing the co-created research and data picture of how we are doing within the doughnut framework in Ladywood, Birmingham to be launched in October 2022.
As part of the week you can contribute your ideas and responses directly using creative methods like the ones within these pages, or share these online any time using #NeighbourhoodDoughnut. To find out more about Co-creation Week #4, and connect to tools and resources surrounding the reports with videos, podcasts and more, go to: bit.ly/NeighbourhoodDoughnut4.
See what grows: bit.ly/NeighbourhoodDoughnut
We want to acknowledge the work and contributions of the 234 authors of AR6 - The Physical Science Basis (AR6-WG1), the 330 authors of AR6 - Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (AR6-WG2) and the 239 authors of AR6 - Mitigation of Climate Change (AR6-WG3), a total of over 800 scientists, all unpaid volunteers, who assessed and published findings to create a streamlined comprehensive assessment of where we stand with the climate crisis. We have deep gratitude for you all.
Explore the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report at: ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6
This zine was co-authored by the following people in Birmingham, UK in April 2022, as part of wider local and global movements of practice through the ecosystem(s) CIVIC SQUARE is proud to be one a part of.
Alice Hindson-Matthews, Anneka Deva, Byng, Charlotte Bailey, Daniel Blyden, Imandeep Kaur, Jack Rutter-Matthews, Kavita Purohit, Khadijah Carberry, Magda Petford, Nettes Derbyshire, Nikki Bi, Rachel Bromfield, Robert Lockley, Samlia Miah, Sanna Ali and Sarah Ali.
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