London and other UK cities unprepared for effects of climate change

London and other cities across the UK are underprepared for the “disastrous consequences” of climate change, with issues including severe flooding and extreme heat posing a “lethal risk” to vulnerable communities, according to a new report.

The London Climate Resilience Review, commissioned by mayor of London Sadiq Khan and chaired by Emma Howard Boyd, the former chair of the Environment Agency, issued a series of “urgent recommendations”, including that Whitehall should give councils more funding and powers to adapt to global warming. 

Britain’s ruling Conservative party has been accused of backtracking on efforts to tackle climate change after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rolled back a series of green measures and drew up legislation to encourage more oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.

The review said “significant climate adaptation and resilience action” was already taking place across London, but warned that it would not be enough to meet forecast rises in global temperatures and the accompanying “disastrous consequences” of climate change. 

In 2021, the capital was hit by flash floods that caused damage to homes and businesses across the city, while in the following year there was a heatwave, with temperatures hitting 40C. Last year was the hottest on record globally, and the second hottest in the UK. 

“We need to recognise that Londoners now face lethal risks, and a step change is needed,” said Boyd. “In the absence of national leadership, regional government has a more significant role to play. We need pace not perfection.”

London’s main climate risks included rising sea levels, as well as surface water flooding, extreme heat, wildfires and drought hitting water supplies, the report said. 

It added that the sea level in the Thames Estuary was expected to rise by about 1.15m by the end of this century and warned that only 9km of the 126km in flood defences west of the Thames barrier were “sufficiently high to last beyond 2050”. 

The warnings came as MPs on the cross-party public accounts committee warned that the risk of flooding had increased across the country, with 5.7mn properties in England and Wales at risk in 2022/23.

The MPs pointed out that although the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) had pledged in 2020 to create “a nation more resilient to future flood and coastal erosion risk”, it had set no overall targets so could not measure progress. 

They added that the Environment Agency, the regulator responsible for maintaining flood defences, had estimated that 40 per cent fewer properties than planned would receive protection in part because of spiralling construction costs and “the bureaucracy associated with approving projects”. 

The MPs pointed out that lack of funding prevented the agency from properly maintaining assets, such as flood defences and barriers, while Defra had failed to provide adequate support and leadership to local authorities on how to address the risk of flooding. Meanwhile, new housing is still being built on flood plains without adequate protection.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, deputy chair of the committee, said flood resilience must become an “ever-increasing priority”. The “alarming truth” is that the “approach to keeping our citizens safe in this area is contradictory and self-defeating, not least in the continuing development of new housing in areas of high flood risk without appropriate mitigations”.

Defra has been approached for comment.

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