The UK’s plans for adapting to the effects of the climate crisis “fall far short” of what is required, the government’s statutory adviser has said.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has examined the national adaptation programme published by ministers last July, intended to set out how people, buildings and vital national infrastructure such as water, transport, energy and telecommunications networks could be protected from the increasing severity of storms, floods, heatwaves and droughts that are afflicting the UK as a result of global heating.
In a damning verdict delivered on Wednesday, the committee found that the government had no credible plan for making the UK resilient to the increasing effects of extreme weather.
Julia King, chair of the adaptation subcommittee of the CCC, said: “The evidence of the damage from climate change has never been clearer, but the UK’s current approach to adaptation is not working.”
The national adaptation plan published last July, known as Nap3, was the third in a series of five-yearly updates in response to an assessment of climate risks, required under the 2008 Climate Change Act, from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
But the CCC found that although it was an improvement on previous efforts, the new plan was still inadequate and required improvement before the next scheduled update in 2028.
King said: “Defra needs to deliver an immediate strengthening of the government’s programme, with an overhaul of its integration with other government priorities such as net zero and nature restoration. We cannot wait another five years for only incremental improvement.”
The CCC found that most of Nap3 was based on existing policy or mechanisms, which were inadequate and ignored more than half of the short-term actions to address urgent risks from extreme weather that had been identified in the latest risk assessment.
The report sharply criticised Defra for failing to make adaptation a priority and to work closely with other government departments on the issue. Ministers had also failed to fund adaptation efforts sufficiently, or provide the incentives for private sector investment, the CCC found, and there was too little monitoring and evaluation.
Jim Hall, commissioner at the National Infrastructure Commission, pointed out that utilities and other companies were planning to spend about £400bn on infrastructure by 2030, so it was essential that the need for it to be resilient to extreme weather was taken into account. “We’ve got a short window to ensure that [the £400bn spending] is optimised for adaptation and resilience, and government must seize the moment,” he said.
Analysts said the reports showed that the government must step up its efforts to protect people, land and infrastructure, or face disaster.
Friends of the Earth said it was planning to take the government to court over the inadequacy of its climate plans. The group’s head of policy, Mike Childs, said: “It’s clear that government plans to protect people, property and infrastructure from the escalating climate crisis are unfit for purpose and must be improved. Ministers must do more to face up to the reality of climate change, including faster action to end our reliance on costly fossil fuels and a robust plan to help safeguard people’s lives and livelihoods from the consequences of a rapidly warming planet.”
Gareth Redmond-King, head of the international programme at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) thinktank, said: “As this government slows action to tackle climate change, their advisers remind us they’re also doing nothing like enough to adapt to the dangerous impacts from it. Climate impacts are getting worse every year as we heat the planet. Not investing to adapt our infrastructure and services is a bit like not bothering to insure your house: it might save you some money in the short term, but it will cost you an awful lot more when your roof falls in.”
The UK should also be helping other nations to adapt, he added. Half of the UK’s food imports come from places around the world likely to bear the brunt of the rapidly changing climate. “If we don’t support other nations to adapt, then harvests of staples such as rice, bananas and tea will fall, leading to shortages and higher prices,” Redmond-King said.
Last month was the hottest February ever recorded globally, and in the UK it was the fourth wettest. Heavy rain is making it difficult for farmers to get crops in the ground, while crop pollination may also suffer as the mild February brought bees early from their winter sleep, only to famish as few blooms were ready.
Tom Lancaster, land analyst at ECIU, said: “Relentless rain this winter is likely to lead to a terrible harvest, come the summer. Floods last year hit yields, just as droughts did the year before.”
A government spokesperson said: “The government’s third national adaptation programme 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.
“We are investing billions in projects to improve the UK’s climate resilience, including £5.2bn in flood and coastal schemes in England, safeguarding future water supplies by accelerating £2.2bn of investment through our ambitious plan for water, and driving tree planting and peat restoration through the £750m nature for climate fund.
“Our negotiators played an important role at the Cop28 summit to help bring an ambitious global goal on adaptation to life and as a leading nation on climate adaptation, the UK is well placed to achieve these ambitions in full.”
