Adaptation is failing to keep up with warming already impacting the UK, allowing threats to worsen, its own advisers have warned
The United Kingdom is even less prepared to deal with climate change that is already effecting the country than it was five years ago, as a result of a “failing” response from the nation’s government, its own independent advisers have now warned.
In a damning report that was published today, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) said that the government action to improve the country’s resilience was failing to keep up with the impact of climate change and worsening climate risks that are already hitting the UK.
In fact the threats that the country is facing have actually worsened, Chris Stark, chief executive of the CCC said, because the UK government’s response has so far been “severely lacking”.
“We’ve become more and more aware of the risks that we face,” he told Sky News. “And yet we haven’t seen a commensurate response from the government.”
This comes after sales of halogen lightbulbs are set to be banned in the UK from September, with fluorescent lights following, under climate change plans. The UK had begun phasing out the sale of higher-energy halogen lightbulbs back in 2018 under EU-wide regulations.
The CCC is urging the government and the devolved administrations to act urgently in order to stop more people from either dying or losing their places of residence, starting with the eight most urgent climate change risks to the UK.
One of the most acute risks is the threat of overheating within homes.
Over 4,000 people have died from heat-related reasons within England since 2018, and 7,000 could end up dying every year by 2050, according to this new assessment.
Since the CCC’s last equivalent report that was conducted five years ago, over half a million (570,000+) new UK homes have been built without the necessary features in order to cope with higher temperatures, such as window shutters or better home ventilation.
“That’s an example of locking in a change which is then difficult to reverse from in the future,” said Mr Stark.
A spokesperson for the UK government welcomed the report, saying “the UK was the first major world economy to set a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Our plan to further reduce emissions in 2035 by at least 78% compared to 1990 levels is the highest reduction target by a major economy to date.”
They stressed that the UK government had been building resilience to both flooding and coastal change in the country and was consulting on proposals to help mitigate overheating within new homes.
But Chris Stark said that while the nation’s government was willing to “make strong ambitions and set new targets” it was “less likely to set the kind of policies that will help us to actually manage those things and to tackle climate change effectively”.
“What we are seeing consistently now from the government is much less willingness to make difficult decisions about how we tackle both those targets and the climate risks themselves,” he said. The UK is already suffering widespread changes to its the climate, with average land temperature having risen by around 1.2°C from the pre-industrial levels, UK sea levels have also risen by 16cm since the year 1900, with episodes of extreme heat becoming more and more frequent.
This comes after most lockdown rules will remain in place in England for four weeks after the planned 21 June easing, Boris Johnson has confirmed. Senior ministers have signed off on a decision to delay the lifting of all legal restrictions had been put upon social contact as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The CCC’s Chris Stark also warned of the changes in the growing season that may affect the way that the nation produces food. “It’s those kind of things that do matter to people,” he said. “And the government has a role in preparing us for that.”
The assessment said that measures such as both building design and retrofit, habitat creation and the improved access to information on the impacts of climate change could make a difference within the next five years.
