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Climate change presents potential increased threats to the comfort and health of urban populations as a result of higher summer temperatures. This paper reviews recent research on the climate change adaptation potential of urban environments and focuses on a major conurbation, London. Recent work relating to the impact of exposure to heat on population health is also noted. Data obtained from a pilot monitoring study carried out in a subset of 36 dwellings (from a total of 110 dwellings in the overall study) across London during the summer of 2009 is then discussed. Preliminary results illustrate the need to quantify the net impacts of individual building characteristics and the location of each dwelling within the London heat island. During a hot period, more than 40% of the monitored bedrooms failed the recommended overheating criteria during the night time. There was some indication of purpose built flats being more prone to overheating. The potential use of such data as the basis of a heat-related health risk epidemiological model for London is discussed. Such a tool would help health policy makers to target the most vulnerable building types and areas.

Purpose – To investigate the potential impacts of future climate change in the United Kingdom on its road and rail networks.

Methodology/approach – The climate change impacts of increasing summer temperatures, decreasing winter temperatures, increased heavy precipitation, greater numbers of extreme weather events and rises in sea level are reviewed.

Findings – Surface transportation is the most exposed element to the localised impacts of climate change. High summer temperatures will result in road rutting, rail buckling and decreased thermal comfort, whereas more intense winter precipitation will cause flooding, landslips and bridge scour across all modes. For all impacts, it is the extreme events (e.g. heat waves and storms) that are potentially the most devastating. As shown, there are some positive climate change impacts. For example, in the case of winter maintenance, all transport networks stand to benefit.

Originality/value – In order for transport to react appropriately to the potential changes in climate, it is essential to understand how the road and rail networks may be affected and to build strategies for both adaptation and mitigation into plans for future developments for both modes.

Urban landscapes play a significant role in supporting municipal, ecological and social systems. Besides, valuable environmental services and urban green spaces provide social and psychological services, very important for the liveability of modern cities and the well-being of urban residents. It is clear that the area of green space in a city, the method of designing urban landscape and access to urban green space potentially affect the health, happiness, comfort, safety and security of urban dwellers. Urban landscape plays a significant role in providing habitats for wildlife, and an important vegetation type in doing this is species-rich herbaceous vegetation that provides pollen and nectar plus physical habitat for native fauna. Any factor that makes an impression on the urban landscape (such as climate change) will affect people’s lives directly or indirectly. There is a universal consensus that the temperature has increased in most of the world over the past century the investigation of climate change impacts on the urban landscape is the purpose of this study.

Understanding the process of climate change adaptation is necessary to design plant communities for use in public landscapes. Increased CO₂ and air temperature in conjunction with the changing rainfall conditions, as the three important factors of climate change, potentially alter almost all world ecosystems. Climate change provides new opportunities, and in some cases, an obligate need to use non-native plant species in conjunction with native plant species, not only to reduce the side effects of climate change but also to increase the species diversity and aesthetic value in meadow-like naturalistic planting design.

The authors confirm that this work is original and has not been published elsewhere. In this paper, the authors report on the effects of climate change on urban landscape and suggest different kind of solutions to reduce the effects. The paper should be of interest to readers in the areas of landscape architecture, landscape ecologist, landscape planner, landscape managers and environmental designer.

Excessive amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂₎ undoubtedly lead to climate change, which directly affects both the natural and the built environment. Observing the impact of climate change on the construction industry, this paper examines sustainable architectural design as a tool to mitigate climate change.

To achieve the previous goal, the authors conduct a comprehensive documentary analysis of three types of sources: (1) scholarly articles in the fields of climate research, sustainable construction, green buildings and sustainable architecture; (2) contemporary global reports on climate change and its impact on the built environment and (3) practitioners' guides explaining practical architectural solutions to the climate crisis.

The systematic analysis provides three types of results: objectives, strategies and principles of sustainable architectural design aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change. On the one hand, the research results provide a solid basis for further conceptual research into architectural design responsive to the effects of changing climate. On the other hand, the detailed strategies and principles are relevant for urban designers and architects.

Among a range of literature in the field of climate change and its effects on the built environment, a particular value of the paper is in addressing a very local level, i.e. the level of individual building and its immediate surroundings. More specifically, this paper provides concrete design components that help reduce CO₂ emissions, finally decreasing the vulnerability index of urban systems.

The interdependence and feedback between climate impacts mitigation and adaptation to the inevitable changes in climate are the key challenges for the built environment in the coming decades. These challenges are more pronounced in the interface between science and society, in which scientific knowledge and evidence are transformed into policy actions. This editorial looks at current and growing evidence base on the impacts of climate change and the means to adapt buildings, as well as the interface between policies and evidence base while summarising the contributions to this special issue.

Dwelling retrofit strategies generally concentrate on measures to reduce energy use and carbon emissions. However, climate change projections predict increases in both the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, including heat waves. It is predicted that by the 2040s severe heat waves similar to the European one in August 2003 may be expected to occur every year. Future guidance therefore needs to combine mitigation with adaptation in order to provide safe and comfortable dwellings, whilst also reducing heating energy use, within the available retrofit budget. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The research presented here used dynamic thermal simulation (EnergyPlus) to model a range of passive interventions on selected dwelling types to predict the effect on both dwelling overheating during a heat wave and annual space heating energy use. The interventions include modifications and additions to solar control, insulation and ventilation.

Results demonstrate the effectiveness of interventions that reduce solar heat gains, with external shutters fitted to windows being the most effective single intervention in many cases. Solar reflective coatings also reduce overheating but lead to increased winter heating energy use, whilst wall insulation reduces heating energy use but can, in some cases, lead to increased overheating. The choice of wall insulation type is shown to be very important, with external insulation consistently performing better than internal for overheating reduction. The modelling further demonstrates that combined interventions can significantly reduce or in many cases eliminate overheating. Overheating exposure was found to vary significantly (up to a factor of ten times) between dwelling types. It can be significantly greater for residents who have to stay at home during the daytime, such as the elderly or infirm, and different interventions are sometimes more suitable in these cases.

An innovative modelling methodology integrating overheating reduction, heating energy use and intervention cost has been developed and implemented for adapting UK dwellings to future heat waves. Other innovations include an automated approach for large volumes of simulations (over 180,000); a unique graphical interpretation method for presenting single and combined intervention results; and a user-friendly, interactive retrofit toolkit, which is available online for public access and free of charge.

This paper aims to identify the significance of carbon emissions reporting for investment banking.

Functionaries at selected financial institutions in the USA, Europe and Australia are interviewed. Carbon emissions reporting methods used by companies are identified using desk research. A proposal from a non‐state actor called the Climate Disclosure Standards Board for general‐purpose carbon emissions reporting is assessed using participant observation. The data gathered are interpreted through a semiotic lens, with focus on the placement, content, and style of reporting, and combining with a functional perspective of decision‐usefulness.

Environmental investing for well‐diversified investors constitutes a discourse of the imaginary. Financialised constructs have been used to represent heavier polluters as superior “carbon performers” (the imaginary), while reported variations in industrial carbon emissions levels have been ignored in asset allocation decisions (the actual). Environmental investing is conditioned by four factors: exclusion of carbon emissions in constructions of firm value; diverse methods used by firms to calculate, measure and report carbon emissions; the appropriate venue for such reporting; and the quantum of data contained therein. Carbon emissions reports have had some use in investors' assessments of firms' corporate governance.

Risk assessment is likely to be erroneous if using measures that deflate carbon emissions by firms' revenues. This may not matter much as carbon reporting in the hands of investors appears linked to imaginary signification more so than actual portfolio decisions.

The paper contributes to work on the participation of institutional investors in environmental investing and establishes a foundation for future research in general‐purpose reporting on greenhouse gas emissions. Supplemented by desk research, the study uses interviews to provide insights into investors' motivations for environmental investing, and how they use company‐issued carbon reports.

This paper seeks to consider how policy changes may drive a change in leasing practices, in order to reduce environmental impact (particularly carbon dioxide emissions) from the commercial building stock.

In many countries, including the UK, environmental policy (particularly on carbon dioxide emissions from energy use) is beginning to impact on the commercial property market. This paper explores barriers to improved performance, two models for greening leases (a light green and dark green approach) based on work by the authors from Cardiff University and the Australian government, as well as how tenanted buildings can be managed “more greenly”. It then explores how green leases may penetrate the market.

The conventional relationship between the landlord (as building owner) and tenant (as occupier) largely neglects environmental considerations. However, change may be rapid, disruptive and challenging.

The paper lays out some of the issues, solutions, and pathways for the commercial property industry.

This paper seeks to give empirical examples of the processes whereby networks learn to collaborate. Specifically, the authors aim to examine efforts to learn to collaborate in response to the challenge of climate change.

The paper uses case study research methods to examine concepts previously developed in the literature and propose a conceptual framework of barriers to learning to collaborate.

Existing research on collaboration over environmental issues highlights the prevalence of cognitive deficiencies, an abundance of conflicts and disputes and the ignorance of exchange opportunities among interdependent actors. Based on a theoretical review and an empirical case study, the authors put forward a framework that involves three stages. The paper proposes that networks learning to collaborate undergo a process of: framing the problem; negotiating; and achieving wise trades.

At all three of the stages given above, there are significant cognitive biases, which can lead to failure to learn to collaborate. The paper gives examples that should help businesses and regulators to understand and avoid in‐built barriers that could lead to a failure of the network to learn to collaborate.

The paper reviews a number of research disciplines linked to collaboration and gives an empirical case study that explores their links. The authors then propose a conceptual framework of barriers to learning to collaborate, which can be used to help guide practitioners. Failure to learn to collaborate can be found in the many contemporary cases of conflicts and disputes; such as in the areas of intellectual property rights, international trade, inter‐firm alliances and vertical marketing systems.

This paper aims at assessing the vulnerability of local communities in the Congo basin forests of Cameroon; to help them identify their specific needs for adaptation, and to facilitate knowledge sharing with the aim of enhancing adaptive capacity.

Using participatory‐action research approach, research was carried out in two project sites in Nkol‐evodo and in Yokadouma in the Center and South‐East Regions of Cameroon, respectively. The authors shared participatory‐research (PAR) steps and processes to assist other researchers and local stakeholders to jointly assess, monitor and adapt to climatic and other changes.

This study shows that the adverse effects of climate conditions to which study communities are exposed are already being felt and exerting considerable stress on most of the important activities to their livelihoods such as agriculture and exploitation of national resources. PAR tools and processes led to participatory diagnosis, conceptualizing of change, participatory identification, prioritization and implementation of specific strategies for climate change adaptation in the study sites. However, further studies are needed to investigate the effectiveness of these strategies.

The PAR experiences show that stakeholders' involvement throughout the project needs to be considered by researchers who wish to enhance the adaptive capacity of the communities they work with.

This paper contributes to the description of the process for enhancing adaptive capacity of forest living communities. Findings in this research may provide a crucial foundation for community‐based adaptation measures and complement broader‐scale scientific research with local precision.