Adaptations to Climate Change Cannot Afford any More Delay

• The Climate Change Committee, the Government’s independent advisor on tackling climate change, has published its report on England’s adaptation progress and assessment of the current National Adaptation Programmes
• The report finds that the Government’s current programmes have only developed ‘fully credible’ planning for five of the 45 ‘adaptation outcomes’ identified by the CCC
• The Committee concludes that the Government’s programmes do not match the scale of the challenge, which will also cause its associated wider priorities of net zero and nature recovery to fail.

Hannah Giddings, Senior Advisor for Resilience at UKGBC said:

“This report shines a light on the sheer scale of action needed to prepare the UK’s built environment to the full range of threats of our rapidly changing climate.

“While we have welcomed improvements in flooding policies and tackling overheating in building regulations for new residential properties, this report rightly asserts that the Government needs to act much more decisively and comprehensively to improve the UK’s resilience to climate change. “Our members across the built environment are working hard to design and deliver a built environment fit for the future. But with investment in climate resilience falling short by an estimated £10 billion every year, the Government must support our efforts with ambitious policies and standards, accurate data and measurement regimes, and crucial reforms to the planning system. Our built environment – and the people living in it – cannot afford any more delay.”