The UK’s efforts to safeguard the nation against escalating climate threats have seen minimal advancement since the current administration took office, according to the latest assessment by the state’s independent climate advisory body.
In an unequivocally critical review, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) concludes that progress on adaptation is “either too slow, has stalled, or is moving in the wrong direction.”
Failings across sectors—from healthcare and social care facilities to vital food and water infrastructure—may leave the country exposed to substantial economic and public health consequences in the coming decades, the committee cautions.
Government representatives highlighted increased investments in flood defence as evidence of action, while conceding that additional work remains necessary.
Floods Minister Emma Hardy told BBC News that bolstering climate resilience remains “a real commitment” for the government.
“We are allocating £2.65 billion to upgrade, maintain, and construct new flood defences.
“But we fully recognise there is further work to be done,” she acknowledged.
Heightened by the impacts of climate change, the UK is experiencing increasingly intense weather, from July 2022’s 40°C heatwave to the wettest 18-month period on record in England between October 2022 and March 2024.
Such occurrences are projected to intensify and become more frequent as global warming persists, driven by greenhouse gas emissions.
While improved preparedness can lessen the impact and build national resilience, the CCC warns that current measures lag far behind what is required.
“We are experiencing climate impacts growing both in speed and severity, yet government action does not reflect the necessary urgency,” Baroness Brown, chair of the CCC’s Adaptation Committee, told BBC News.
“The government manifesto pledged to tackle resilience, but so far concrete actions have not materialised,” she said.
“There have been encouraging statements, but nothing substantive has emerged.”
Of the 46 adaptation areas evaluated, none were found to be making satisfactory progress; merely three had robust future plans and policies formulated.
These findings parallel last year’s CCC assessment.
Health remains among the most underprepared sectors.
The CCC underscores the mounting toll of fatalities linked to heatwaves and points out that hospitals themselves are susceptible to high temperatures.
Baroness Brown cited the experience of Guy’s and St Thomas’, the UK’s largest hospital trust, where IT failures coincided with July 2022’s extreme heatwave.
This led to the disruption of the appointment booking system during a period of high demand, forcing a return to paper records.
“We lost thousands of vital appointments for critical medical tests,” she said.
“If we want to improve the NHS, we must ensure its resilience to a changing climate, or risk losing ground.”
Flooding also presents increasing difficulties. Since the previous CCC review, the adequacy of river and coastal flood resilience plans and policies has diminished.
The historic town of Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire exemplifies these challenges, having endured repeated floods over the past four years, most recently in November 2024.
Polly Pearce described the rapid inundation of her charity shop.
“It was like a tsunami,” she recalled.
“The water rose as high as the wall panelling. All our Christmas stock was lost.”
Empty storefronts now line the town’s main street, many attributed to unsustainable flood-related losses.
Business owners report that insurance cover is increasingly unattainable or prohibitively expensive, leaving shopkeepers exposed.
Meanwhile, the Environment Agency states it cannot meet the estimated £25m–£30m required for comprehensive local flood protection.
The government insists it remains committed to supporting residents and indicates that work to enhance property-level flood resilience will commence over summer.
The CCC does note improvements in some areas, for example, with initiatives to evaluate risk exposure among businesses and financial services.
Underlying these efforts is a fundamental debate over the associated costs.
However, Baroness Brown cautions that deferring climate adaptation to cut costs would be “a massive error” and may multiply economic harm over time.
“We are particularly concerned about the current spending review,” she added—a notably forthright intervention from the Committee.
“Climate resilience is an immediate issue. Failure to act now could lead to catastrophe tomorrow.”
According to information obtained by the BBC, only 18 full-time staff currently focus exclusively on climate adaptation at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
This represents just 0.3% of Defra’s nearly 6,600 full-time core staff.
Defra noted that some of these employees split their time across other responsibilities, and that the figures do not include adaptation work by staff outside the department.
Additional reporting by Miho Tanaka
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