‘Lost decade’: CCC slams government failure to prepare UK for worsening climate impacts
Climate Change Committee warns record 40C heatwave last summer shows climate crisis has already arrived in the UK, yet the government’s current adaptation strategy lacks ambition, clear targets, and funding
The government now faces a “make-or-break moment” to rapidly prepare for the worsening impacts of climate change after a “decade of failure” to enhance UK climate resilience, or citizens and businesses will face even greater damages and disruption as the planet warms further.
That is the stark conclusion from the Climate Change Committee (CCC) today, which has once again laid bare the glaring failure of successive governments to prepare society – businesses, homes, infrastructure, resources, the natural world, and beyond – for the increasingly damaging impacts of the climate crisis.
The CCC’s latest assessment of the UK’s climate adaptation preparation and progress, published today, comes in the form of a 340-page dossier setting out myriad ways in which global warming is already impacting every corner of the country, the ongoing failures and missed opportunities to contend with these increasingly costly threats, and a spate of recommendations for how government could get a grip on the growing risks.
The government’s existing climate adaptation strategy is deeply underpowered, it said, and unless it significantly ramps up its ambitions the UK will face more disorder and higher costs further down the line as the damaging impacts of the climate crisis continue to bite harder.
Climate adaptation and resilience should be baked into all Department’s policy decisions, backed by more public funding, stronger incentives for private investment, measurable targets, and monitoring of progress towards a clear overarching vision, the independent climate advisory body said.
Baroness Brown, chair of the CCC’s adaptation committee, lamented “a lost decade in preparing for and adapting to the known risks that we face from climate change”, as she pleaded with the government to ensure climate adaptation forms a core pillar of all policy decisions on Whitehall.
“The government’s lack of urgency on climate resilience is in sharp contrast to the recent experience of people in this country,” she added. “People, nature and infrastructure face damaging impacts as climate change takes hold. These impacts will only intensify in the coming decades.”
The report highlights the UK’s first ever recorded 40C day last summer as the clearest indication yet that climate change has arrived in Britain, while emphasising that it is only set to intensify over the coming decades, creating an even bigger challenge for businesses and policymakers unless urgent action is taken.
Searing temperatures that day in July 2022 led to an unprecedented spate of heat-related deaths, wildfire incidents, and significant travel and infrastructure disruption that the nation was ill-equipped to deal with due to poorly insulated and ventilated buildings and a lack of awareness of how to protect people and infrastructure against such high temperatures, Brown said.
“Of course, we had 40C temperatures for the very first time in the UK, and that led to around 1,000 more heat-related deaths,” she added. “20 per cent of operations were cancelled at the peak of the heatwave because our hospitals are not prepared for the very hot weather. We had rail disruption, overhead wires expanding, rail buckling and speed restrictions. We had widespread drought, problems with farming and water restrictions. We had a spate of wildfires. The fire services in many towns and cities were really stretched and Transport for London suffered an £8m loss simply due to grass fires… The government’s lack of urgency around climate resilience is increasingly in contrast to the experience of the population in the UK.”
The report also warns that the UK not only lacks resilience within its own territory, but the country’s vast web of supply chains around the world is similarly ill-prepared for worsening climate impacts elsewhere, with worrying ramifications for businesses and consumers.
Overall, of 45 core climate adaptation priorities identified in the report, the CCC found “fully credible” plans in place for just five, as well as a dearth of evidence of delivery and implementation against any of the government’s resilience plans.
It did welcome pockets of limited progress, such as updated building regulations on overheating in homes, commitments to fund and pilot local climate resilience officers and forms to help improve community preparedness, and an uptick in businesses reporting on their climate-related risks.
However, it added that policymakers, businesses, and investors hold limited data on their resilience to climate change, which is in turn hampering efforts to accurately evaluate risks and progress towards reducing them, stressing that a well-resourced climate adaptation monitoring and evaluation programme “is now an urgent priority”.
Without urgent action, UK businesses and consumers therefore face the increasing likelihood of resource shortages and scarcity on supermarket shelves, leading to rising food, energy, housing, insurance, and tax costs that also could harm the Treasury’s own finances in the long-run, the report added.
Brown also reiterated previous CCC warnings that failing to bolster adaptation and resilience to worsening climate impacts risks derailing myriad other government policy priorities and ambitions, including the UK’s nature restoration goals and legally-binding 2050 net zero target.
“Each month that passes without action locks in more damaging impacts and threatens the delivery of other key government objectives, including net zero,” she said. “We have laid out a clear path for government to improve the country’s climate resilience. They must step up.”
Last month, the CCC estimated that in areas such as flood protection, futureproofing infrastructure and housing, nature restoration and bolstering water supplies, as much as £10bn of new investment may be needed each year to prepare the country for expected changes to the climate.
With the government set to come forward with its next five-year climate adaptation strategy this summer, the CCC said it had published today’s report today earlier than usual in order to enhance the chances of the government taking on board its recommendations in the eventual plan.
Meanwhile, the government is also expected to this week publish its revamped Net Zero Strategy – after the High Court ruled its existing plan “inadequate” – alongside its response to Chris Skidmore’s Net Zero Review, prompting hopes that stronger climate adaptation policies could be on their way.
But the CCC stressed that Ministers now face a “make or break moment to avoid a further five years of lacklustre planning and preparation for the changing climate by Defra”, adding that last year’s record breaking heatwave should serve as a “warning” of the dangers of further dither and delay.
It is far from the first time the CCC has criticised the government’s preparations for worsening climate impacts, with outgoing chair of the Committee Lord Deben having previously likened the government’s climate adaptation strategy to BBC sitcom Dad’s Army.
But against a backdrop of near constant political crisis in recent years, from Brexit and Covid-19 to war in Ukraine and soaring inflation, the Committee’s repeated warnings on climate adaptation have largely failed to pushed the government into concerted action.
However, the government maintained the UK remains a “world leader” in pursuit of net zero and that it had taken “decisive action to improve the UK’s climate change resilience”, including through a record £5.2bn invested in flood defences.
“We welcome the Climate Change Committee’s recognition of our progress so far and will factor its recommendations into our updated National Adaptation Programme – which will be published later this year and will ensure we robustly address the full range of climate risks to the UK in the short and longer term,” the government said in a statement.
Green business groups and campaigners welcomed the CCC’s report.
Nick Molho, executive director of the Aldersgate Group, said businesses needed climate adaptation, the net zero transition, and nature recovery to all be given equal focus, stronger ambition, and close coordination from government going forward.
“Progressing with urgency on all three areas is essential if the risks faced by UK businesses from a changing climate are to be reduced and effectively managed,” he said. “UK businesses rely on infrastructure and supply chains that are already being disrupted by the effects of climate change, as seen in recent years in sectors like power, water, food, buildings and more. A comprehensive and science-based national plan on adaptation is therefore essential to the long-term resilience of the UK economy.”
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, meanwhile, stressed that 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,” she added.
