Comment on Climate Change Committee risk assessment report
CCC report highlights the risks and opportunities Britain faces from climate change.
By George Smeeton
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A report published by the Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) Adaptation Sub-Committee (ASC) highlights the risks and opportunities Britain faces from climate change.
Commenting, Professor Joanna Haigh, Co-Director of the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, said: “Climate change poses serious and increasing risks to communities, businesses and our natural environment in Britain, now and in the future.
“Flooding and other extreme weather events are perhaps the most obvious of these. It’s worth noting, for example, that climate change increased the odds of the extreme rainfall that brought such devastation to Cumbria last winter.
“That is why this report is so important, as it starkly sets out the challenges we face and the urgency of addressing them. Some impacts are now inevitable and the primary way to reduce future risk is to cut greenhouse gas emissions.”
Marylyn Haines Evans, Chair of Public Affairs Committee, National Federation of Women's Institutes said: “This report is worrying because it shows just how close the risks of climate change really are for all of us.
“The threats to our wildlife and the British countryside are one of the things that most concerns our members about climate change, with 56% of WI members extremely worried about how UK wildlife is suffering from our climate change inaction, and 58% of members most concerned about the challenges that future generations - set to inherit a warmer and more chaotic planet - will face.
“We cannot leave this problem as a legacy for our children and grandchildren. It is our responsibility to address it today before it really is too late.”
Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti, Director of Strategy for the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy at University College London, said: “Climate change is a problem that is at once global and local. Effects overseas, such as impacts to food supply chains or the migration of people, are also felt here at home.
“Climate change also poses systemic risks in the UK in areas such as infrastructure, healthcare networks, and fresh water and agriculture.
“The logical response for policy-makers is therefore to not only address both the causes and effects of climate change, but also to ensure that a response to the challenge is cross-governmental, at all levels, international, national and local.”