Farming News - 'Mitigate to survive and adapt to thrive', Environment Agency chief states
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'Mitigate to survive and adapt to thrive', Environment Agency chief states
Climate adaptation has too often been seen as the 'Cinderella' of climate action, the Chief Executive of the Environment Agency will highlight today in a speech (Tuesday 29th November).
The speech follows the conclusion of COP27 in Egypt, where the UN Secretary General warned that the world was on the "highway to climate hell". It highlights that - with climate-related disasters having nearly doubled in the last 20 years and a million species at risk of extinction - a renewed focus on mitigating the impact of climate change is crucial.
In a speech at the Institute for Government in London, Sir James will focus on how world attention has allowed substantial progress on tackling emissions. He will highlight however 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.
Sir James Bevan will say:
"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.
"And 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 £670m worth of damage every year to non-residential properties across the UK. Unless we take further action to adapt, under a very plausible 2°C 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."
He warns that government investment alone will not tackle the issue, despite progress being made by the UK Government on adaption through its third five-year National Adaptation Plan and commitments to triple its international funding for climate adaptation.
Reflecting on the role of government and the private sector, he will go onto say:
"The UK government has a leading role to play in this, 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. 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.
"The cost of adaptation will always be an issue, especially at a time of pressure on public expenditure and people's own cost of living. So let me make two points about the money. First, adapting to climate change is excellent value: every £1 invested produces up to £10 in net economic benefit. Second, most of the money we need to adapt to climate change won't come from the government (which means the taxpayer) but from the private sector.
"That's because only the private sector has the scale of the resources we need to tackle a challenge of this magnitude, and because private sector companies increasingly recognise that mitigating their own impacts on the climate and adapting their business for a climate changed world is not just the right thing to do but good business. Companies that do so will thrive, and those who don't will not survive."
The Environment Agency plays a major role in responding and mitigating to the effects of climate change as a Category One responder under the Civil Contingencies Act to flooding and other environmental incidents. It will warn and inform communities when flooding is threatened and operates flood defences to reduce the risks and protect communities.
Sir James will highlight how investment in the EA's incident management service provides excellent value for money to the nation with every £1 spent on managing flood incidents providing £6 of wider benefits.
He will also highlight with the nature and climate crisis interlinked, how the EA favours nature-based solutions to flooding whenever possible, such as planting trees and enhancing the natural habitat to slow the flow of water rather than carbon intensive concrete defences.
This comes as the UN Convention on Biological Diversity will meet in December in Montreal, where countries will seek to securing a global agreement which helps restore ecosystems.