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Preparations of the British government for floods and higher temperatures launched by climate change are “inadequate” and, in some cases, have won, warned its official advisor.
“Progress is either too slow, is at a standstill or is going in the wrong direction,” the climate change committee (CCC) said on Wednesday in a report Responding to the threat that climate change poses to food systems, infrastructure, health, houses and the economy of the United Kingdom.
Warmer and weaker winters have combined with the increase in sea level and drier and warmer summers to increase the risk of floods and droughts in the United Kingdom, creating a much clearer need for the improvement of the country's climate resilience, he said.
The first report of the adaptation committee under the direction of CEO Emma Pinchbeck, a former British energy lobbyist, examined the delivery of an adaptation plan published by the previous government in 2023.
The Labor government has not significantly moved the dial on already mediocre planning, according to the CCC report, despite its manifesto commitment to “improve resilience and preparation through the central government, local authorities, local communities and emergency services”.
Baroness Cross-Bencher Brown, president of the CCC adaptation committee, said the United Kingdom should prepare for a disaster similar to the floods that hit Valence in Spain last year, when a year of rain fell in just three hours and 20 minutes, killing more than 200 people. “We need the government to recognize that it is the disaster that could occur tomorrow.”
More than 6.3 million properties, half of the superior agricultural land of the United Kingdom and more than a third of the railways and roads are already at risk of flooding, according to the report.
The government is expected to set long-term objectives to reduce the risk of flooding in the United Kingdom and ask the national energy system to consider how floods and rarity of heat and water could affect power and network operations of the United Kingdom, he said.
The next examination of public spending is expected to adapt to the ring, added Brown. “The government is subject to a lot of pressure to make cuts, but it is not the one to cut.”
The report also highlighted the threats posed by extreme heat for public health and critical infrastructure of the United Kingdom, as it can make the rail lines bolt and the power lines are sagging. He highlighted research suggesting that there could be 10,000 heating deaths per year in the middle of the century, and 7% to GDP.
No area of unique adaptation covering the economy, health, the built environment, infrastructure and land management was good enough, depending on the report. The management of the water supply has worsened since the previous CCC stage report in 2023, with a slow rate of leak reduction, as are elements of monitoring of marine housing. Certain policies on the resilience of the floods had aggravated.
Friederike Otto, lecturer in climate sciences at Imperial College in London, said that the government was doing a “correct work” to cut CO₂ emissions. “However, they simply cannot afford to maintain the status quo on adaptation, which leaves the United Kingdom dangerously exposed.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that he was investing “a record of 2.65 billion pounds sterling to repair and build flood defenses, protect tens of thousands of houses and businesses and help local communities become more resilient with climate change”.
“We will now carefully examine the conclusions of the report of the Climate Change Committee, and we will respond in good time.”
