The UK is set to be amongst the best prepared nations for the implications of climate change following publication of a groundbreaking study into the threats the country faces.

The Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) highlights the top 100 challenges to the UK and our economy of a changing climate and provides the most compelling evidence yet of the need to increase our resilience. The research confirms the UK as a world-leader in understanding climate risk to ensure we can make robust plans to deal with these threats.

In order to provide a reliable baseline for decisions by Government, local authorities and businesses the research does not take into account any future policies or plans. However, a Government report published alongside the CCRA does highlight the many current and future policies already in place and gives details of plans which will address some of the risks identified.

The Government has also announced a National Adaptation Programme that will prepare the UK for the effects of climate change, including the risks set out in the CCRA. People are encouraged to give their views through a new website on the action needed to tackle the implications of climate change where they live and work.

Speaking at the launch of the CCRA, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said:

“This world class research provides the most comprehensive case yet on why we need to take action to adapt the UK and our economy to the impacts of climate change. It shows what life could be like if we stopped our preparations now, and the consequences such a decision would mean for our economic stability.

“The Climate Change Risk Assessment will be vital in helping us to understand what we need to do to stop these threats becoming a reality. In doing so there is also great potential for growth through UK firms developing innovative products and services tailored to meet the global climate challenges.”

Professor Sir Bob Watson, Chief Scientific Adviser at Defra, said:

“The CCRA is ground-breaking research which puts the UK at the forefront of understanding what the projected changes to our climate will really mean for us.

“For the first time it means we can compare a wide range of risks based on their financial, social and environmental implications. This will be invaluable for Government in prioritising the areas for future policies and investment, and it will help businesses assess what they need to do to ensure they are resilient to the changing climate.”

Lord John Krebs, Chair of the Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change, said:

“Without an effective plan to prepare for the risks from climate change the country may sleepwalk into disaster. This report represents an important first step in the process and demonstrates why the UK needs to take action to adapt now. The work of my Committee has found that by taking steps to manage these risks, the UK can reduce the costs of climate change in the future.

“The Government’s forthcoming adaptation programme should tackle barriers to adaptation so that local communities, businesses and households can take action to prepare.”

Among the key risks the CCRA identifies, in the unlikely event the UK took no further action, are:

• Hotter summers present significant health risks. The CCRA projects that without measures to reduce the risk, there could be between 580-5,900 additional premature deaths per year by the 2050s. The Department for Health launched a Heatwave Plan in 2004 and update it annually to provide advice and support for people vulnerable to hotter weather.

• Increasing pressure on the UK’s water resources. The CCRA projects that without action to improve water resources, there could be major supply shortages by the 2050s in parts of the north, south and east of England with the greatest challenge in the Thames River basin. Defra published a Water White Paper last year which includes a package of measures to address water supply shortages, and to ensure the water industry is more resilient to future challenges.

• The risks of flooding are projected to increase significantly across the UK. New analysis for England and Wales show that if no further plans were made to adapt to changing flood risks, by the 2080s due the effects of climate change and population growth annual damages to buildings and property could reach between £2.1billion – £12billion, compared to current costs of £1.2billion. Defra has introduced a new method of allocating funding for flood defences so that more communities will benefit from flood protection, and the Department is working with the ABI to ensure that flood insurance remains widely available after the current agreement between Government and insurers expires in 2013. As part of these discussions, Defra is considering whether there are feasible, value for money ways of targeting funding support to those at highest flood risk and less able to pay.

• The number of days in an average year when temperatures rise above 26 degrees C is projected to rise from 18 days to between 27-121 days in London by the 2080s. This could mean greater demand for energy to cool buildings and more heat related illnesses.

• Increases in drought and some pest and diseases could reduce timber yields and quality. Projected drought conditions could mean a drop in timber yields of between 10% and 25% by the 2080s in the south east, driving up timber costs. Pests and diseases, which thrive in warmer conditions, may also pose an increasing threat, such as red band needle blight – which causes loss of foliage and can lead to tree death. Defra has published a Tree and Plant Health Action Plan and committed £7million to further research into plant diseases.

The CCRA also highlights opportunities for the UK that climate change could present, including:

• Opening of Arctic shipping routes. The melting of Arctic sea ice could lead to the opening up of new container shipping routes and improved trade links with Asia and the Pacific.

• Milder winters may result in a major reduction in cold-related deaths and illnesses. Currently, cold weather results in between 26,000 and 57,000 premature deaths each year in the UK. By the 2050s, a reduction in these figures of between 3,900 and 24,000 is projected to occur due to increasing average winter temperatures. This would particularly benefit vulnerable groups, including those with existing health problems.

• Opportunities to improve sustainable food production. Sugar beet yields are projected to increase by 20-70% and wheat yields by 40-140% by the 2050s due to longer growing seasons if water and nutrients remain available. A warmer climate presents opportunities to grow new crops such as soya, sunflowers, peaches, apricots and grapes, while new markets may open up overseas for British grown produce.

The CCRA evidence will be used to develop a National Adaptation Programme (NAP) that will set out timescales for the actions Government will take to meet the challenges of climate change.

The development of the NAP starts today and Caroline Spelman has called on the public to give their views on what the priorities areas for action should be. These views will help shape the final NAP, which will be published in 2013.

Mrs Spelman continued:

“Climate change is a global phenomenon, but its impacts will be felt at a local level and affect people differently depending on where they live. That is why I want people to give us their views to help develop a National Adaption Programme that puts us in the best shape possible to meet climate change head on.”

From a press release on the DEFRA website

The Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA), and the complementary Government report, can be viewed here.

The National Adaptation Programme website can be found at http://engage.defra.gov.uk/nap

WALNEY residents whose homes are at risk of being washed into the sea have been snubbed by a government minister.

Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock has now pledged to sit down with residents and town hall officials to consider the options after Richard Benyon refused his request to meet a local delegation to discuss the issue.

Mr Woodcock said: “The problem of coastal erosion at Earnse Bay is of pressing concern.

“Bit-by-bit the coastline is crumbling into the sea and this is causing alarm among residents of the West Shore Park site.

“I wrote to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs minister Richard Benyon in November asking him to meet us.

“He has declined that invitation, which I find disappointing given the serious nature of this issue and I feel sure that residents of north Walney will be frustrated by his decision. I had hoped that the meeting would go some way towards putting people’s minds at ease and sorting out the problem, but we are back where we were.

“I will be contacting residents and borough council officials so we can talk about options – such as exploring new ways of securing funding to build better sea defences.”

In his letter to Mr Woodcock the minister said he had no direct influence on the choice of projects that are granted funding.

Over recent years tidal erosion has affected many parts of the Furness coastline, with the Earnse Bay foreshore problem being particularly acute. Barrow Borough Council is the authority responsible for coastal protection.

It has made a number of applications to the Environment Agency seeking support to tackle the Earnse Bay erosion issue, as yet without success.

A Defra spokesman said: “Defra has no direct influence on which coastal erosion projects are allocated funding.

“The Environment Agency, which takes these decisions, has offered to meet with John Woodcock at his earliest convenience.”

Story in the North West Evening Mail

Posted on Damian Carrington’s Environment Blog on the Guardian website

More flood and coastal erosion defence projects across England will receive government money each year under a new funding system announced today.

The new system provides money based on the benefits each project delivers to homes, businesses, agricultural land and infrastructure. Many schemes will still receive full Government funding, whilst others will qualify for a contribution to the final cost.  In many cases this government contribution will be worth 80 to 90 per cent of the full scheme cost.

This will replace the current model where schemes applying for money are typically either funded in full by Government or not at all.

Payment rates from Government will be highest in areas most at risk from flooding and in the most deprived areas of the country, meaning that schemes in these areas are more likely to qualify for full funding.  Environmental benefits achieved by schemes will also help boost the amount of funding the scheme receives.

Under the new scheme each area will have a lot more influence over which projects go ahead because decisions will be made at a local level by regional committees who can better decide where government funding is most needed.

Environment Minister Richard Benyon said:

“This new funding system means more flood defence schemes will benefit from Government money so we can protect more people and properties. Many schemes in areas at high risk will continue to receive full funding from government, whilst others will receive large contributions that will go a long way towards meeting the amount needed for the defence to be built.

“Where additional contributions are needed, we will be working in partnership with local communities to find ways of securing private investment from those who will benefit from the added protection. This will mean that local communities have a much greater say in how and where schemes are built and are no longer hampered in their ambitions by what Government alone can afford.”

Where schemes do not qualify for full Government funding, the Environment Agency will work in partnership with local communities and other interested parties to lower costs or secure additional sources of private funding, such as from businesses or developers who stand to benefit from the additional protection a flood defence will bring.

For the first time, funding will also be available for surface water management schemes and property level protection as well as traditional flood and coastal erosion defences.

Schemes already under construction are not affected by these changes.

The first National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy has also been laid before Parliament today.  Subject to parliamentary approval it will be formally adopted later this year.  The strategy takes forward a number of recommendations made by Sir Michael Pitt in his review of the 2007 floods.  These include giving the Environment Agency a strategic overview role of all sources of flood risk and formalising the roles and responsibilities for Government, local authorities, emergency services and community groups.

Read more on the DEFRA website

Scientists are carrying out the first ever seabed survey of the East Yorkshire coast.

The latest technology is being used to produce an accurate map of the area between Flamborough and Spurn Point.

Coastal engineers will use the data to help them take more cost-effective, preventative action to combat coastal erosion.

According to government figures the Holderness coastline is one of the fastest eroding areas in Europe.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) estimate that 2m (6ft) of shoreline is lost every year.

The problem is particularly acute in the region as much of the coast is soft clay.

Defra is funding the £400,000 survey, which uses shipboard sonar equipment to map the seabed up to 2kms (1.2 miles) from the land.

‘Complete picture’

The information will be combined with land and air surveys to give a fuller picture of the locations likely to be affected by coastal erosion.

Mike Ball, principal engineer at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said the information will lead to better decision making and more cost-effective sea defences.

“We can see which areas need the defences building, which areas need their defences strengthening in light of the detail of the information we are getting from the survey.

“The information will complete the picture. At the moment we don’t know where the material that is on our beaches goes to exactly.

“It comes offshore and it goes down but we don’t know how that process occurs, how that mechanism happens,” he said.

Story on the BBC News website

Funding for vital flood defence schemes in the South West is to be cut by 16 per cent next year, the Government has confirmed.

But officials refused to produce a list of projects that will not get state aid as a result of the region losing £6 million in 2011/12.

Ministers announced that £521 million would be spent on protecting homes and businesses in England from April.

It is down from around £590million spent on capital and revenue in previous years. Of this, £34 million has been allocated to the wider South West – an area that includes Devon and Cornwall as well as Bristol, Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset.

It represents a 16 per cent drop from the previous year’s allocation of £40 million.

Labour claims ministers are taking a “reckless gamble with people’s homes and businesses” as many schemes had been cancelled nationally.

As the devastation in recent years wrought on Boscastle, North Cornwall; Ottery St Mary, East Devon; and mid Cornwall indicate, the Westcountry is particularly susceptible to flooding.

While funding has decreased, the Environment Agency, the quango that oversees the projects, insisted major schemes in the region would go ahead.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs produced an “indicative” list of 33 projects in Devon and Cornwall that are in line for the Whitehall cash.

They include ongoing big schemes such as tidal defences in Shaldon, South Devon, on Teignmouth estuary and in Truro, which will provide protection to hundreds of properties.

The South West Regional Flood Defence Committee is to decide precisely which schemes get how much money over the next few months.

Geoff Boyd, flood and coastal risk manager for the Environment Agency in the South West, said: “We will continue to protect as many homes and businesses as we can. We have plans to work on 147 river and coastal flood defence schemes in the next financial year which, when completed, will increase protection to thousands of homes.”

The coalition Government says it has done its utmost to shield spending on flood defences in the spending review.

The Government expects to spend at least £1.2 billion on flooding and coastal erosion over the next four years and improve protection for at least 145,000 homes, environment minister Richard Benyon said.

“Inevitably, it has been necessary to find savings in all areas of Government expenditure,” he added.

From the following year, the Government will introduce a new funding mechanism where the state will not pay 100 per cent of the costs, which ministers hope will bring more schemes forward.

Mary Creagh, Shadow Environment Secretary, said: “The Tory-led Government are taking a reckless gamble with people’s homes and businesses by cutting the flood defence budget by 27 per cent in cash terms.”

In the House of Commons, Stephen Gilbert, Liberal Democrat MP for St Austell and Newquay, whose constituency was battered by floods last year, received assurances from ministers on funding for flood plans and wardens.

He said: “In St Blazey last year, we saw that community flood plans and volunteer flood wardens were able to help protect property and people.”

Story in the West Briton

39 new flood and coastal defence projects have been announced today as part of Government plans to reduce the risk of flooding and coastal erosion in England.

Of these new projects 21 will provide additional protection to over 13,000 households at risk of flooding. The remainder mainly relate to vital repairs and safety enhancements to existing defences.

Over the next year £521m will be spent managing flood risks, with investment in the new schemes, ongoing work or completion of 108 projects already under construction, and a further 187 schemes receiving funding for development work such as feasibility studies, for possible construction in future years.

The allocation for 2011/12 also covers maintenance of existing defences, developing flood forecasting technologies and heightening public awareness of flood risk.

The government expects to spend at least £2.1bn on flooding and coastal erosion over the next four years and improve protection for at least 145,000 homes.

Environment Minister Richard Benyon said:

“Protecting homes from the threat of flooding and coastal erosion is incredibly important for the government, and schemes which will contribute the most in terms of protection to households and economic benefit per pound spent have been prioritised.

“The Environment Agency and other risk management authorities have worked very closely to ensure that as many people as possible are protected from the threat of flooding using the resources available.”

Some of the key flood and coastal erosion defence projects planned to benefit from funding in the 2011/12 financial year include:

• Shaldon (Devon): completion of this £8.4m scheme to protect over 450 properties from the risk of tidal flooding.
• Pevensey Bay (East Sussex): continued funding for this 25-year Public Private Partnership scheme to provide protection for some 17,000 properties along the coast between Eastbourne and Bexhill-on-Sea.
• Nottingham: ongoing construction of this £51m scheme to protect 16,000 homes and businesses along a 27km stretch of the River Trent.

• Redcar (Redcar and Cleveland): ongoing construction work on this £25.5m scheme to reduce the risk of coastal flooding to more than 1,000 properties when completed.
• Felixstowe (Suffolk): funding for Suffolk Coastal District Council to begin work on a new £10m scheme to reduce the risk of coastal erosion and flooding to more than 1,600 homes and businesses, including the Port of Felixstowe.
• Upper Mole Flood Alleviation Scheme (West Sussex): continuing construction work on this £15m scheme that will protect over 1,000 properties in Crawley and Horley when completed.
• Keswick (Cumbria): funding to begin work on a new £5.7m scheme to protect 180 properties from the River Derwent.

Key schemes completed during 2010/2011 include a £38m scheme to protect 3,500 properties and businesses in Carlisle, a £10m refurbishment of the Hull Tidal Barrier and a £1.1m sea defence project between Seasalter and Graveney in Kent.

Government funding for schemes starting in 2012/13 and beyond will be subject to the outcomes of the current consultation on funding reforms.

Environment Agency Chairman Lord Chris Smith said:

“We will continue to protect as many homes and businesses as we can. We have plans to work on 147 river and coastal flood defence schemes in the next financial year which, when completed, will increase protection to thousands of homes.

“We will also seek financial contributions from organisations such as developers and businesses who directly benefit from these defence schemes. Doing so will allow our funds to be stretched further and mean more can be done overall.

“Flooding cannot always be prevented so we all must be better prepared, for example by signing up to the Environment Agency’s free flood warning service.”

Next month Defra, the Cabinet Office, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Environment Agency will conduct the country’s biggest peacetime exercise – Exercise Watermark – to test the country’s arrangements to respond to severe, wide-area flooding.

From a press release on the Defra website

See the full list of schemes going ahead in 2011/12

Defra consultation: Future funding of flood and coastal erosion risk management in England. This consultation invites views on potential reforms to the way in which central government funding is allocated to projects in England in order to manage the risk of flooding and coastal erosion.

New proposals to give local communities a greater say in what is done to protect them from the risks of flooding and coastal erosion have been announced today.

Defra and the Environment Agency have published a consultation on a new national flood and coastal erosion risk management strategy for England which aims to allow greater local involvement in planning and prioritising flood defences.

Outlining the new approach at the Environment Agency Annual Conference and Association of British Insurers Flooding Conference, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said:

“Last week in Cornwall I saw for myself the devastating impact of flooding on families and businesses alike.

“With more extreme weather patterns predicted in the future, this new strategy will give communities and businesses more power to influence how they are protected, because local involvement means plans and funding can be specifically prioritised and tailored.”

Lord Chris Smith, Environment Agency Chairman, said:

“It is essential that communities, businesses, local authorities, the Environment Agency and Government work together to reduce the risk of flooding and coastal erosion to people, property and the environment.

“We urge interested groups to take part in this consultation, to help shape future approaches to how we can work together to develop local solutions to help tackle flooding and coastal erosion.”

At the same time proposals to change the system for allocating money for flood defences are also being published, so that more schemes can get the go ahead.

The proposed new funding criteria would mean that more flood defence schemes benefit from some level of Government funding. Those who will directly benefit from the schemes, such as local businesses and community groups, will have the opportunity for further voluntary investment.

Caroline Spelman added:

“The old rules mean that a scheme that doesn’t qualify for total Government investment gets pushed to the back of the queue and sometimes never gets built.

“This new approach means that more schemes will be able to go ahead. By encouraging additional investment from a wider range of local organisations and businesses, local ambitions for flood protection will no longer be held back by national budgets.”

The new approach responds to Sir Michael Pitt’s findings in his review of the 2007 floods that central government cannot pay for all flood defence schemes. Government would therefore pay for a share of the benefits and outcomes that each project could achieve, as opposed to the full costs of fewer schemes under the current guidelines.

Payments would be made based on the individual benefits of the schemes, such as for each household protected or value of economic benefits. This would mean that schemes in rural areas would be judged on a level playing field with schemes in more densely populated areas.

Any private contributions to the cost of flood defences will be entirely voluntary and communities at most risk of flooding will still be prioritised for Government funding.

Notes

• Please see the The National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy.
• Please see The Future funding for flood and coastal erosion risk management consultation.
• The National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy meets the requirements of the Flood and Water Management Act and the Pitt Review.
• The Payment for Outcomes consultation meets a recommendation by Sir Michael Pitt that Government should “develop a scheme which allows and encourages local communities to invest in flood risk management measures”.

Thousands of holidaymakers heading to British beaches this summer will be cheered by a major government report into the state of the UK’s seas. Coastal waters are getting cleaner, fish stocks are improving and species diversity in estuaries is increasing, according to the most authoritative examination ever carried out of UK seas.

But while the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs study boasts of “significant improvements” since the last such report in 2005, it also paints a picture of an environment being rapidly affected by a warming world. Seas around the British Isles are higher, warmer and more acid, it says, and coastal litter levels are at a record high.

The sea surface temperature of UK waters has risen on average by between 0.5 and 1C since the 1870s, which could affect the fish that appear on our plates in future. Of the 330 species found around the UK, cold-water species such as cod are in retreat, while warm-water fish including red-mullet, seabass and John Dory are spreading rapidly.

Fish stocks are improving overall, partly due to fishing reductions brought about by European Union quotas, despite criticism from marine conservation groups that the quotas are set too high to maintain fish stocks. The proportion of fin-fish stocks in UK waters being harvested sustainably has risen from 10% in the early 1990s to 25% in 2007.

However, the report notes that a large majority of stocks are still being fished at unsustainable levels. Fish are simultaneously being hit by warming waters, which are causing the cold and warm water zooplankton that fish feed on to move north. The warm water zooplankton tend to be smaller and less nutritious, affecting fish larvae and stocks.

Climate change is also causing sea levels to rise, with the mean sea level rising by 1.4mm per year in the 20th century. While slower than global growth of 1.7mm per year in the same period, the rise has not always been steady – in the 1990s, it was going up by 3-4mm each year. More coastal erosion and more flooding are likely to occur as a result, says the report, with the Humber estuary and Norfolk coast particularly at risk.

UK waters are also not exempt from the global trend of ocean acidifiation due to higher levels of dissolved CO2. This leads to harmful effects for marine life that rely on calcification, such as crustacea and molluscs. But the authors of the report admit the lack of a baseline for pH levels makes it hard to measure the rate of our acidifying seas.

Levels of pollution continue to drop since Defra’s research in 2005, including heavy metals such as lead and mercury. However, there are still some localised problems such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) which, while stabilising nationally, are still found in places at levels that affect wildlife, including harbour porpoises. Litter levels doubled, though, between 1994 and 2007, with 2,000 items per kilometre of coastline. Litter was even found at a depth of 1,000 metres.

The picture for waterbirds and seabirds is mixed. Waterbird numbers are largely healthy, with the 2006/2007 population numbers 85% above levels in the 1970s. But seabirds have seen a 9% decrease in numbers since 2005, with herring gull numbers down over 50% since 1969. Seabirds are suffering particularly badly in north and north-west Scotland, due to the arrival of invasive species such as rat and mink, which affect nesting sites.

The evidence in the report was gathered from peer-reviewed science provided by universities, government agencies, NGOs and industry.

Marine environment minister Richard Benyon said: “The report’s findings show that we are moving in the right direction, but there is more work that needs to be done, especially to protect the UK’s seabirds. I am committed to improving our marine environment by delivering the conservation measures in the Marine and Coastal Access Act and hope to see further improvements in the next report as we gain the benefits from Marine Conservation Zones.” In January, Lundy Island off the north Devon coast became England’s first Marine Conservation Zone.

Story by Adam Vaughan in the Guardian

Visit the Charting Progress 2 website

Historic seawalls at Cromer need £6.2m worth of repair work in the next two years, and double that figure to keep them in good shape for another century.

The multi-million pound bill comes as the town’s pier is also in line for £1m worth of urgent repairs.

More than a century of battering from the sand and flint-loaded waves has weakened the 110-year-old late Victorian sea walls.

Like the pier, the walls are not unsafe, but if nothing is done the walls will begin to fail – putting the promenade, pier access, and ultimately cliff top properties including hotels at risk, said North Norfolk District Council’s head of coastal strategy Peter Frew.

In places the original walls are half way back into the promenade after other strengthening works. In other places what is behind them is unknown.

The worst spots are in the central area around the pier, but on the east beach, parts of the sea wall have no proper foundations, are being undermined and need piling.

Moves to carry out the work – mostly wall and groyne improvements, date back to 2001, but were hit by a government freeze on coastal defences, followed by a change of funding assessment systems.

Under the new formula the Cromer scheme needed to fit into a wider strategy, which was approved by the council cabinet this week.

It also has to identify the repair and maintenance cost over the next 100 years, which is estimated at £12.5m.

But because it potentially saves £84.3m worth of property the scheme is well ahead of the government target of a 5:1 cost-benefit ratio.

Mr Frew said he hoped the scheme would not fall foul of the current government spending review, as the Defra department in charge of coastal defence is not currently in line for the heaviest cuts.

“It is eligible and meets the grant criteria, but it will also have to compete with other places for the money in the pot, so we will see what the budget brings on June 22,” he added.

The reinforced concrete sea walls are listed for their historical importance as early examples of their kind, meaning government permission is needed to do work on them. And they would have to be replaced almost like-for-like, rather than adding the thinner kind of walls built during Sheringham’s seafront improvements in the early 1990s.

Mr Frew said the council was also trying to invite new government ministers to the area to showcase its problems and how £3m worth of national Pathfinder cash was being used.

He said that in the future – as the Cromer to Happisburgh stretch of coast was re-examined – if the government did not provide funding for sea defences, it should provide cash to help communities adjust to the issues thrown up by a changing coastline.

Story by Richard Batson in the Eastern Daily Press