The UK has failed to prioritize climate adaptation to risks such as floods and heat waves, putting British citizens and critical infrastructure in danger, an official assessment has found.
A national adaptation plan, published last July, “falls far short of what is needed,” the UK’s Climate Change Committee warned on Wednesday. Adaptation is insufficiently funded, poorly coordinated across different government departments and not well enough monitored or evaluated, the committee said in its official assessment of the plans.
“The evidence of the damage from climate change has never been clearer, but the UK’s current approach to adaptation is not working,” said Julia King, also known as Baroness Brown of Cambridge, chair of the adaptation committee.
As much as £10 billion ($12.78 billion) more per year might be needed this decade to prepare the UK adequately for climate risks, the committee said in a separate report last year.
Climate change poses a severe and growing risk to economic activity and infrastructure. Last month was the warmest February on record globally, the ninth consecutive month when this has been the case, and the fourth-wettest on record in England. Increasingly extreme weather, including heavy rainfall and hotter temperatures, threaten water supplies, transport, power, agriculture and health. At last year’s COP28 meeting signatories, including the UK, agreed to a Global Goal on Adaptation with targets for resilience by 2030.
The committee, an independent body created to scrutinize the UK government’s climate change policy, also warned that government departments were failing to prioritize climate resilience in their policymaking. Several sectors including rail, water and energy will also set out their plans for spending in the next few years, and without a clear mandate for resilience significant investment could go into infrastructure that will cope poorly with climate risk, according to the committee.
The UK was once regarded as a global leader in adaptation, but other countries have since pulled ahead, the committee said, citing the US’s $6 billion in funding to reduce flood risk and support the resilience of the electricity grid, and a German adaptation strategy, which includes measurable targets for sectors including water, infrastructure and land use. By contrast, the UK’s plans are based on current policies, contain no new funding and lack a measurable vision for what needs to be done, the committee said.
A UK government spokesperson said it was investing billions in adaptation, including projects to protect areas from coastal erosion and flooding and to safeguard water supplies, and that its adaptation program “sets out a robust five-year plan to strengthen infrastructure, promote a greener economy, and safeguard food production in the face of the climate challenges we face.”
The European Union also received fresh warnings on climate risks this week. On Monday the European Commission said climate change could reduce economic output in the EU by around 7% by the end of the century, as it urged governments to make adaptation a priority. An assessment by the European Environmental Agency, an EU agency that provides analysis and data to the commission, found that the impacts of climate change are already threatening every aspect of daily life and economic activity.
Adapting to climate change “has to be among the top priorities of the next policy cycle,” said the agency's executive director Leena Ylä-Mononen. “This requires urgent action not only at an EU-level, but also by member states, communities and the financial and insurance sectors.”
