Government now not taking local weather threats critically – watchdog

The executive has made little or no growth in making ready the United Kingdom for the rising threats posed through emerging temperatures since coming to energy, its local weather watchdog has warned.

In a extremely crucial record, the impartial Climate Change Committee says growth is “either too slow, has stalled, or is heading in the wrong direction”.

From hospitals and care houses to meals and water provides, this would depart the United Kingdom liable to severe financial and well being affects within the many years forward, the CCC warns.

In reaction, the federal government pointed to its funding in flood defences, however stated extra paintings was once wanted.

Floods Minister Emma Hardy advised BBC News that making ready for the converting local weather was once “something we’re really committed to”.

“We are putting £2.65bn into upgrading, maintaining and building new flood defences.

“But we completely know, in fact, there may be extra that must be finished.”

Fuelled through local weather trade, the United Kingdom’s climate extremes are intensifying, from the 40C warmth of July 2022 to England’s wettest 18 months on file between October 2022 to March 2024.

Such events are only likely to become more severe and happen more often, as the planet continues to get hotter due to humanity’s emissions of planet-warming gases.

Better preparation can limit the damage by making the country more resilient, but the CCC says this is not happening at anywhere near the required pace.

“We are seeing local weather have an effect on taking place quicker and extra intensely and extending [but] executive simply does not but appear to be taking it critically,” Baroness Brown, chair of the Adaptation Committee at the CCC, told BBC News.

“The manifesto mentioned it was once going to deal with this factor of resilience and but, up to now, it is finished not anything,” she added.

“We’ve heard some heat phrases… however not anything has pop out but.”

None of the 46 areas assessed were found to be making “just right” progress in adapting to climate change. Only three had “just right” plans and policies in place for the future.

These are most commonly unchanged from the CCC’s closing record in 2023.

Health is one of the areas that remains most poorly prepared.

The CCC points to the rising number of deaths linked to extreme heat and hospitals themselves being vulnerable to hot weather.

Baroness Brown highlights the case of Guy’s and St Thomas’, the biggest hospital trust in London, which was hit by a failure to its data centres during the extreme heat of July 2022.

This meant it was unable to operate its appointments system at a time of intense demand, and it had to move to paper appointments.

“We misplaced 1000’s of a very powerful appointments for other people for crucial checks,” she mentioned.

“We’re seeking to beef up the NHS. Unless we needless to say it must be resilient to the local weather, we are going backwards.”

Flooding is another challenging area. Plans and policies to ensure places are resilient to river and coastal flooding are found to have worsened since the CCC’s previous report.

The ancient town of Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire is a case in point. It’s been flooded repeatedly in the last four years, most recently in November 2024.

At the heart of these discussions is the question of cost.

But putting off efforts to prepare the UK for the changing climate in an attempt to save cash would be “an enormous mistake” and could increase economic damage in the long run, Baroness Brown said.

“We are very apprehensive about their spending assessment,” she added, in an unusually strong plea from the Committee.

“This isn’t a the next day drawback; it is a as of late drawback. If we do not deal with it as of late, it turns into a crisis the next day.”

A freedom of information request submitted by the BBC found there are just 18 members of staff working fully on climate adaptation at the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra).

That’s just 0.3% of Defra’s nearly 6,600 full-time-equivalent core staff.

Defra said some of these employees also worked on climate adaptation part-time, and the figures don’t include those working in other parts of government.