Climate smart cities on Paul Hudson's Weather Show

13th November, 2017 - 17:13

What is Leeds doing at the Bonn climate talks? The BBC's Paul Hudson hears from University of Leeds researcher Andrew Sudmant, part of the Climate Smart Cities team behind Leeds Climate Commission, speaking at the UN COP23 conference on empowering cities to transition to a low carbon economy.

Speaking on Paul Hudson's Weather Show on BBC Radio Leeds, Andrew said: "There is a notion that climate change is necessarily a costly issue and without a doubt there are dangerous storms and rising seas that are costly to our society but there are many actions we can take which are things we can do just with a narrow focus on the economics of things that save us money on energy bills.

"And then there are a whole host of other actions we should take with a mind to the wider benefits.

"Doing nothing would be vastly more costly than taking measures now."

Describing the most recent work of the Priestley International Centre for Climate academics, Andrew Sudmant described how the team had looked at all of the different urban communities in the UK and forecasts for their future emissions and then explored how they could be affected by a range of measures from switching to electric vehicles to retrofitting houses.

Listen to the interview (34.00- 40.29 mins)

The programme is repeated on BBC Radio Lincs Monday 13 November 18.00