Comment on Climate Change Committee Adaptation Progress Report

“Climate change is having a devastating and multi-faceted impact on UK farming and our collective food security. Last year’s harvest was one of the worst on record after 18 months of relentless rain [2], following a drought and extreme heat in 2022 that left crops baked into the ground. For farmers, it’s becoming increasingly hard to farm and this is not only hitting the UK's food security but household finances too, with £361 added to the cost of a household food shop by climate change in 2022 and 2023 alone. [3]

"The response to this scale of risk is clearly not aligned to the jeopardy it poses. And yet we have solutions available now, including the green farming schemes that were unexpectedly pulled last month [4]. Investing in these schemes at the spending review in June will be needed to build the resilience of UK food production, and will be a key test of whether the government has taken the criticism in this report on board. Until we reach net zero emissions and stop adding planet warming emissions to the atmosphere, these risks simply become more and more unmanageable.”

Gareth Redmond-King, Head of International Programme at ECIU said: "Just three years ago, the IPCC issued a similar warning globally, to the Climate Change Committee’s here: that we’re adapting nowhere near fast enough [5]. But they also found limits to our ability to adapt. Some ecosystems are already hitting those limits, even at 1.3°C of heating. Our food systems will hit similar limits before long, at 2°C; already climate impacts all around the world are hitting crops which we rely on in the UK, where we import two fifths of the food we consume [6]. Failing harvests and shortages are fuelling price rises, adding to the cost of living for UK consumers.

"The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries have warned that global GDP loss between 2070 and 2090 could be as high as 50% unless immediate action is taken to address emissions [7]. The UK’s Green Finance Institute say climate change and nature loss risk costing the UK 6% of GDP as soon as the 2030s [8]. This is in stark contrast to the much lower price tag of just 0.2% of GDP which the CCC put on cutting emissions to net zero to limit climate change, as well as the £83 billion in value which net zero industries contribute to the UK economy, growing by 10% year on year. [9]

"In a week of unseasonably high temperatures, with losses to wildfires in the UK in just four months higher than any whole year in more than a decade [10], it is clear just how dangerous and costly climate change is becoming. These warnings, and the fragility of our global food systems, remind us we need to adapt to the heating we have already caused, and cut emissions fast if we want to avoid worse and more costly damage into the future. But the CCC's latest advice also remind us of the UK's global leadership role, which includes investment through international climate finance, to support adaptation and protect those fragile food supply chains on which we rely so heavily."