Climate adaptation has too often been seen as the “Cinderella” of climate action according to the chief executive of the Environment Agency (EA), Sir James Bevan.
Bevan said that world attention on climate change has allowed substantial progress on tackling emissions.
He highlighted that action on adaptation has been far too slow and that the UK has so far largely failed to adapt much of its critical infrastructure to the climate emergency, threatening the country’s security and prosperity.
In a speech at the Institute for Government in London, he said:
“Unless we can start closing the widening gap between adaptation action and worsening climate risk, various ugly sisters will rear their heads.
“We will see significant and growing threats to our habitats, our soil health, our crops, our power systems, our physical and mental health, and our economy.
“The longer we leave it to adapt, the bigger the bill we are handing to our children.
“Because it will be them who are forced to pay for the deterioration of our climate-vulnerable infrastructure and the disruptive consequences of climate impacts.
“Today flooding causes £670 million worth of damage every year to non-residential properties across the UK.
“Unless we take further action to adapt, under a very plausible 2° by 2100 warming scenario, those damages will be 27% higher by 2050 and 40% higher by 2080.
“This is not what the next generation need on top of the rising cost of living.”
Bevan said that the UK government has a leading role to play in tackling climate change, and it is playing it.
“But in one sense governments, here and elsewhere, can only be the fairy godmother of climate adaption, because while governments can change some things, including by giving political leadership, setting standards and addressing market failures, they cannot change everything,” he added.
“For that, every section of society needs to play a part in making us resilient to a climate changed world: from businesses, to NGOs, to each one of us personally.”
