Committee on Climate Change's 'Well Adapted UK' report: comment

"The report makes clear that UK farmers are already paying the price for climate change, with three of the five worst harvests on record happening in the last five years alone, [2] and things are only set to get worse. Without action, climate change is projected to reduce high-quality farmland in England and Wales by more than two-thirds by 2050; and the Fens, the breadbasket of Britain, face a sixteen-fold increase in flood risk.

"These impacts land directly on household budgets — with climate impacts contributing to UK food prices that are on track to be 50% higher by November 2026 than at the start of the cost-of-living crisis. [3] Restoring nature — planting trees, rewetting peatland, building healthier soils — does double duty: cutting emissions while helping farmers and communities adapt to impacts we can no longer avoid.

"But adaptation is not a substitute for mitigation. The CCC is clear that without reaching net zero and bringing the climate back into balance, climate impacts may go past the point the UK can adapt to, or risk triggering irreversible tipping points such as the collapse of Atlantic currents that would leave the UK with a much colder climate and struggling to grow food."

Gareth Redmond-King, Head of International at the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said: “The Government’s own national security advisors, as well as a host of other security and food experts have issued warnings of a growing risk of serious disruption to UK food supply chains, from ecosystems that could collapse in the 2030s.

"We import two fifths of what we eat, and already see climate change adding hundreds of pounds to UK household food bills, with worsening extremes overseas compounded by those at home that caused the second worst harvest on record last year.

"Without help to adapt to a more extreme climate, farmers who produce our food in poor and developing nations around the world will struggle to feed people in their own country, to maintain their livelihoods, and to sustain production to export to nations like the UK. Yet, the Government recently cut support to many countries who supply us with food by cancelling half its pledged contributions to the Green Climate Fund - one of the major sources of such help, via climate finance from major developed economies." [4]