Harrow is one of the boroughs set to benefit from a whopping £3.8m investment by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to boost the city’s climate resilience through the second round of his Green and Resilient Spaces Fund.
The funding will go towards planting over 100,000 new trees and expanding woodland in the capital, including the creation of 50 hectares of new publicly accessible woodland.
The sixteen projects that will receive grants aim to increase tree planting and make green spaces more accessible to Londoners, supporting the Mayor’s mission to future-proof the capital against climate change. The funding will improve almost 30 hectares of green space in the capital – equivalent to the size of 1,500 tennis courts – and restore nature to over a kilometre of river.
Of the sixteen projects, four large-scale projects in Haringey, Harrow, Northolt, and Southwark have been awarded £2.55m to improve biodiversity and access to green space in local areas vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Three additional projects have received a total of £944,000 from the Mayor’s Trees for London programme to create new areas of tree canopy cover to combat over-heating and flooding, including the creation of 50 hectares of new publicly accessible woodland in Enfield.
The Mayor pledged to prioritize projects in areas of the capital that are particularly vulnerable to climate change, areas with low tree canopy cover, or areas where Londoners live more than a ten-minute walk away from green space. The latest investment brings the Mayor’s total spending on making London a better, greener city to almost £30m since 2016.
London has experienced the impacts of the climate emergency first-hand in recent years, with extreme temperatures, devastating fires, and flash floods laying bare just how vulnerable the city is to the consequences of climate change. City Hall analysis has shown that if the necessary action is not taken and extreme temperatures and flooding continue to get worse, a quarter of London’s rail stations, one in five schools, nearly half of London’s hospitals, and hundreds of thousands of homes and workplaces will be at risk of flooding in the future.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said, “I’m delighted to announce nearly £4m in additional funding to increase tree planting and boost our resilience to climate change across the capital.
“Trees, green spaces, and the natural environment have a critical role to play in tackling the climate and ecological emergency, and planting 100,000 new trees, including 50 hectares of new publicly accessible woodland, will help make London a better, greener, and safer place for everyone. I will continue to take bold action, particularly in the areas of the capital most vulnerable to climate change impacts.”
