Climate change is 'taking hold' but Britain is not ready, says report

Science Editor Emily Morgan reports from a Suffolk reservoir that's short of water

The government's 'lacklustre' planning and preparation has left the UK exposed to a host of climate-related threats, a new report says.

Last summer was an example and a warning, said one of the report's authors, citing the record-breaking 40 degrees Celsius temperatures, 1,000 heat-related deaths, 20% of hospital operations cancelled, rail disruption, widespread drought and wildfires that destroyed dozens of homes.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC), which advises the government's climate policy, looked at how prepared sectors were for issues such as food security, water supply, transport, health, business, agriculture and finance were.

It found adaptation efforts were “lacking across the board”.

Of the 45 adaptation outcomes the government wants to achieve, the CCC said only five have fully credible plans. It added there is no evidence of effective measures being implemented in any of them.

Baroness Brown, chairwoman of the CCC’s adaptation committee, said: “The last decade has been a lost decade in terms of preparing for and adapting to the risks – the risks we already have and those that we know are coming.

“The Government’s lack of urgency on climate resilience is in sharp contrast to the recent experience of people in this country.

“People, nature and infrastructure face damaging impacts as climate change takes hold. These impacts will only intensify in the coming decades.”

Even if the global goal of reaching net zero is achieved, the climate will continue to warm for another 30 years, said CCC boss Chris Stark - so the UK must prepare for hotter and more unstable conditions.

The Government’s National Adaptation Programme (NAP), which sets out its plan to prepare for climate change, “fails to match the challenge facing the country”, the CCC said.

It lacks vision, is not underpinned by tangible outcomes or targets and has not driven policy or implementation across Government, it said.

The third NAP, due for publication this summer, is a “make-or-break moment to avoid a further five years of lacklustre planning and preparation”.

Gareth Redmond-King, international lead at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “Food supply is just one of the ways our national security is imperilled by an increasingly unstable world.

“Last year, gas prices and climate impacts added hundreds of pounds to British consumers’ food bills.

“This year, yields of some vegetable crops have fallen off the back of extreme heat and subsequent drought.”

Professor Chris Hilson, director of the Centre for Climate and Justice at the University of Reading, said: “Climate adaptation policy must be joined up with policy on mitigation.

“With homes overheating in summer heatwaves, for example, there is little point spending money on this without at the same time tackling poor insulation and energy efficiency to cope with cold winter temperatures.”

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas added: “In the past year we’ve seen flooding, drought, chronic food shortages and the hottest temperatures on record – the climate emergency has well and truly arrived.

“Not only are we ill-equipped for what’s happening now, but we’re also nowhere near ready for what could happen in the future. Adapting to the climate emergency is not a matter of choice, but necessity.

“Mitigating its very worst impacts – while delivering green and resilient homes, healthy and low-carbon food and a restored natural world – requires not just more planning, but also more political will to act with real urgency.”

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