The UK is seeing the impacts of the climate emergency
hitting “worst case scenario” levels with more extreme
weather and flooding, Environment Agency chief executive
Sir has warned
today (Tuesday 23 February) as he urged action to reduce
emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change ahead
of COP26.
Sir James has set out the increasing challenge that the
Environment Agency and the nation are facing in tackling
the extreme weather brought by climate change. Speaking at
the annual conference of the Association of British
Insurers, Sir James has said:
The reasonable worst case scenario for climate sounds
like this:
- Much higher sea levels will take out most of the
world’s cities, displace millions, and make much of the
rest of our land surface uninhabitable or unusable.
- Much more extreme weather will kill more people
through drought, flooding, wildfires and heatwaves than
most wars have.
- The net effects will collapse ecosystems, slash crop
yields, take out the infrastructure that our civilisation
depends on, and destroy the basis of the modern economy
and modern society.
If that sounds like science fiction let me tell you
something you need to know. This is that over the last
few years the Reasonable Worst Case for several of the
flood incidents the EA has responded to has actually
happened, and it’s getting larger.
That is why our thinking needs to change faster than the
climate. And why our response needs to match the scale of
the challenge.
Sir James’ comments come nine months ahead of the COP26
climate change conference in Glasgow, where the UK will
host delegates and climate experts from around the world,
aiming to drive action on adapting to the inevitable
effects of climate change around the world, as well as
reducing emissions, protecting and restoring nature, and
accelerating the green transformation of the financial
system.
With the Prime Minister having set out a roadmap to ease
Covid lockdown restrictions and move back towards
normality, Sir James called on governments and the public
to put the same effort into tackling the “unseen pandemic”
of the climate emergency as we have tackling Covid:
The climate emergency is the unseen pandemic, because
left unchecked it will kill more people, and do much more
harm, than Covid-19.
In the same way we have to work together to tackle
Covid-19, it follows that we will get the environment we
pay for, we will get the climate we work for.
That is why the government is right to be putting so much
effort into securing the right outcome at COP26 later
this year.
The Environment Agency is already driving efforts to
protect and prepare the nation for the effects of climate
change, delivering on its commitment to better protect
300,000 homes from flooding since 2015. It is preparing to
deliver the Government’s record £5.2 billion investment in
new flood and coastal defences up to 2027 and implementing
the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy to
protect and prepare homes and businesses from flooding and
coastal change and create climate resilient places.
Alongside this, Sir James highlighted the action of the
Environment Agency to reduce emissions, emphasising the
need for us all to lead by example to drive climate action:
We know exactly what we have to do. We need to mitigate
the extent of climate change. We need to adapt to its
effects. And we all need to lead by example.
The Environment Agency is doing those things. We are
reducing the speed and extent of climate change by
regulating down greenhouse gas emissions from industry,
and by running the UK’s new Emissions Trading Scheme.
We are helping communities become more resilient to the
effects of the changing climate by building new flood
defences and our role in planning and placemaking. And we
are trying to walk-the-walk ourselves, with a commitment
to become a Net Zero organisation by 2030.
Sir James was speaking on a panel at the Association of
British Insurers annual conference on Tuesday 23 February.
