Cliff Notes
- A report criticises the UK government’s fragmented approach to climate change, highlighting a lack of effective measures to protect against flooding, overheating, and wildfires.
- The Climate Change Committee warns that climate impacts are worsening, with projections of over half of England’s farmland and significant infrastructure being at risk by 2050.
- Experts call for urgent action, emphasising that current government spending cuts could exacerbate the vulnerabilities posed by climate change.
Government warned it is setting country up for ‘disaster’ unless it better prepares UK for heavy flooding and intense heat
A blistering new report has slated government efforts to protect Britons from climate change that is already flooding homes, farmland and railways, overheating hospitals and schools and fuelling wildfires.
Following deadly flooding in Valencia and furious wildfires in Los Angeles, the UK’s climate advisers have warned people and critical infrastructure are highly exposed to extreme weather due to a “piecemeal and disjointed approach”.
They warned progress in adapting to a hotter world has either been glacial, or moved in the wrong direction – amid fears of budget cuts in the upcoming spending review and spiralling problems in the water industry.
Of the 46 measures of government delivery – from protecting railways from collapsing to ensuring water and food security – not one was rated “good”.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) even said there has been “no change in addressing this risk” under the new Labour government – raising questions about its claims to be a climate leader.
The government says the issue is a top priority.
Baroness Brown, who chairs the CCC’s adaptation committee, told Sky News: “We know what climate change is doing now. We know worse is to come. And yet nobody seems to be taking this seriously enough.”
While Labour has made bold strides in trying to limit climate change, it’s done very little on helping us deal with the impacts, she said.
“It still seems to feel like it’s tomorrow’s problem… and if we don’t tackle it today, it becomes tomorrow’s disaster.”
The “Progress in adapting to climate change” report warns that by 2050:
- Over half of England’s top farmland, one in four homes and half of roads and rail lines will be at risk of flooding
- Heat-related deaths could pass 10,000 in an average year
- Unchecked climate change could cost 7% of GDP.
It said climate change is already hitting hard:
- Extreme heat buckles rail lines, fuels wildfires and drives up food bills
- Heatwaves wiped out a hospital data centre, cancelling appointments when the health service is “already on its knees”
- Children are toiling through exams in boiling school halls.