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Climate Change

A potential environmental catastrophe is facing the country and starting to unfold. If that catastrophe comes to pass, our children and our children’s children may not rue the day that we failed to take action, because those generations may not exist. I think that it is as extreme as that. I am, of course, referring to the challenge of climate change. This Government have a very good record on the causes of climate change, on emissions and on global warming. There is the work done at Kyoto, and the fact that we are on track to meet the Kyoto targets for cutting emissions; there is the work that we have led on carbon trading schemes; and there is the leadership that the Government have shown on the world stage. When it comes to dealing with the effects of climate change, however, the Government’s record is rather more mixed. I say that despite the observation by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that the United Kingdom is one of the countries that are better placed and better prepared to deal with climate change. It saddens me that when we debate climate change in this place, we almost invariably talk about the causes—the emissions side—rather than about coping with the effects. I have made three long speeches in the Chamber in the past year on the effect of climate change and the things that I think the United Kingdom ought to be doing. As far as I am aware, I am the only Member who addresses the issue in the Chamber, certainly in any depth. Climate change is not a recent development. I learned about the effects of greenhouse gases, hydrofluorocarbons and so on when I was at university in 1973. The problem of emissions of certain gaseous substances changing our environment has been known about for well over 30 years, yet we are only now starting to take action on the effects side. Climate change is clearly happening. In my garden, until recently, we had Molyneux roses in bloom—from the excellent David Austin Roses, based near my constituency. We have had more floods and heavy rain in this country in recent years than we have experienced for thousands of years. We have also had very hot summers. My grandfather, Colonel Chetwode Crawley, skated on the Thames in the 1890s; that would have been unthinkable in recent years. In a recent report, the OECD said:"““There tends to be a view that climate change is decades away and that it will affect faraway places. But if you look at the Alps… you can tell it is happening already.””" It is certainly happening in faraway places. Christian Aid says:"““Poorer countries are often located in the regions of the world where the climate is already variable and highly volatile. These countries are likely to experience a significant increase in both variability and volatility even if the increase in global average temperature was kept within two degrees.””" Christian Aid is absolutely right about the effects in other countries, and I do not wish to downgrade that, but I want to focus on the effects in the United Kingdom, which can be crudely divided into winter and summer effects. Winter effects include coastal erosion, with higher tides and increasing water levels as the temperature of the water rises, and coastal and inland flooding. The diameters of storm water drains are insufficient and larger diameters will be needed. The same applies to drainpipes on buildings. There is disruption to logistics in the supply chain if transport is interfered with, for example by flooding. Similarly and more prosaically, there is the problem of rats. We have more rats now because winters are less cold and they do not die off. As for the summer effects, they include health effects such as an increased incidence of heatstroke and probably of skin cancers. The asthma season is getting longer and tropical diseases such as malaria are starting to come into southern England. Alien predator species are also coming in, there are effects on wildlife and the crops that we grow, and there is a need for reservoirs in the summer. We have had a drought in the south-east since 2004, and it is almost a year-round drought. One subject that straddles the two crude sides of the equation that I have mentioned—the winter and the summer—is the issue of building regulations. We need to do more in respect of water efficiency and shade because of droughts in the summer. We need to do more in terms of insulation to cut emissions, too. There must also be improvements such as better waterproofing and drainpipes, because of heavier rainfall in the winter. What are bodies other than the Government doing? Encouraging things are being done in the United Kingdom. Around the country, the Wildlife Trust is already dealing with the challenge. Its recent report, ““A Living Landscape””, highlights the importance of landscape scale and gives examples of work being done. The black country urban park takes that approach in the urban area that the Minister and I represent—as do you, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country has been working with the four local authorities in the area to identify and improve open spaces and to develop corridors for wildlife with rivers and canals. The Smestow valley in my constituency is one such focus. As well as improving the wildlife value of the black country, that work should help to build and repair local communities and bring economic and social and health benefits to the people who live there. The City of London has commissioned a consultancy—called, appropriately, Acclimatise—to assist in developing a climate change adaptation strategy for the City. A report will be published shortly, and it will make recommendations for action and develop practical tools to enable the City of London and its stakeholders to take into account the changing climate. The Royal & SunAlliance insurance company, the third largest general insurer in the United Kingdom, insures more than 1.3 million private homes. It remains committed to providing cover against flood damage for its customers. I salute it for that, because that it is difficult as more than 500,000 homes are at significant risk of flooding. The Stern report said that the cost of flooding to the UK"““could increase from 0.1 per cent. of GDP to 0.3-0.4 per cent. of GDP if the global average temperature increases by 3 or 4oC.””" The Association of British Insurers has done excellent work on adapting to the effects of climate change. Its ““Financial risks of climate change”” document was published in 2005; its ““A future for the floodplains”” was published last July; and it also published ““Coastal flood risk—thinking for tomorrow, acting today”” last November, which is only two months ago. The ABI recommends ensuring that current building codes reflect future severe weather conditions, investing extra in improved coastal defences and a long-term flood management strategy. It points out:"““Many of the potential costs could be avoided by taking action now.””" It also points out:"““Some 570,000 homes are at high flood risk, compared with the estimate of 220,000 when current flood defence spending levels were set in 2002.””" That total has increased a lot in the past four years. It recommends that Government spending on flood defences needs to increase by 10 per cent. a year to £750 million by 2011. It is absolutely right. The Environment Agency has produced a wonderful briefing, which it sent to me in preparation for the debate, on the need to adapt to the unavoidable consequences of climate change. It talks about addressing flash flooding, winter flooding, winter storms and sea level rise, threats to water supply, hot summers and threats to biodiversity. Last March, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs produced a document, ““Climate Change the UK programme 2006””—which is a good start. Last month, the Department for Communities and Local Government produced a consultation document entitled, ““Planning Policy Statement: Planning and Climate Change, Supplement to Planning Policy Statement 1””. Those documents are steps forward, as is the Stern report, of course, which was published last autumn. But what worries me in particular about them is that although the DEFRA document, for example, talks about adapting to and dealing with the effects of climate change, less than 10 per cent. of it deals with that aspect of climate change. More than 90 per cent. of it deals with the causes—with emissions. That balance is wrong. There is a similar situation with the DCLG consultation document, which states:"““‘Planning and Climate Change’ sets out how the spatial planning system should contribute to reducing carbon emissions (mitigation) arising from built development. The PPS also provides guidance on how the planning regime should address the climate change now accepted as inevitable, such as sea level rise and higher temperatures (adaptation).””" But again, only a fairly small proportion of that document actually deals with effects and adaptation. The same is true of the Stern report. From memory, only about 40 of its 700-odd pages deal with adaptation. We have got the balance wrong. I salute the work of the Minister, who was in Great Yarmouth on Monday introducing an initiative to assist 90 properties. That is part of an overall initiative involving 15 pilot schemes and a budget of £1.7 million, which is aimed at minimising the growing problem of urban flooding. The sadness is that although we have known about this problem for a long time, many of these documents still talk about the research that needs to be done. Of course research is important, but I wish that we had started on it much more comprehensively and a longer time ago. Under DEFRA, we have the UK climate impacts programme, but my suspicion is that it is rather under-resourced. It consists of 15 scientists based at Oxford, and from what I have seen they are doing good work, but I suggest to the Minister that in order to deal with adaptation—the effects of climate change, which are already taking place in this country—that programme, or something very like it, needs to be expanded greatly now, instead of waiting. I have a series of questions for the Minister, based on the proposals outlined in last spring’s DEFRA document entitled, ““Climate Change: the UK Programme 2006””. I quite understand that he might not be able to answer all of them tonight. By what date will the adaptation policy framework be published? Has the review and assessment of existing and new policies for their vulnerability to climate change impacts, and their contribution to adaptation, been completed and published? If not, when will it be published? Has the study of the potential role of regulation and standards in accelerating action to adapt, in order to inform future development of the adaptation policy framework, been initiated? If so, what is the expected publication date? If it has not been initiated, by what date will it be? What was the funding of the UK climate impact programme in each of the past five years, and what is the anticipated funding for each of the following three years? I should be grateful if the Minister said whether the study of the business costs and benefits of adapting to climate change has been initiated. If so, what is the expected publication date? If it has not been initiated, by what date will it be? By what date will the UK Biodiversity Partnership publish its practical guidance? By what date will the revised guidance statement on the role of spatial planning be published, if it is not the document to which I have already referred? By what date will the revised guidance on implementing flood and coastal erosion risk management measures be published? By what date will the results of collaborative research on the effects of climate change on UK priority species be published? By what date will the long-term monitoring network on the effects of climate change on UK priority species be published? By what date will the review of current activities to assess the impact of climate change on the marine environment be published? Has the assessment of changes in the distribution and abundance of marine species been published, and if so on what date? Finally, has the programme of research to investigate cross-sectoral issues been commissioned, and if so on what date? The convention of the House is that if one has an Adjournment debate on a particular topic, as I have tonight, any other hon. Member who wishes to make a brief comment should seek permission from the Member and Minister concerned. It is sad that on what I regard as a major issue for this country, not a single hon. Member has approached me and there is not a single Opposition Member in their place. This issue is a huge challenge for our country and we have not yet gone far enough to meet it. My final, rather poignant, point is about an article that I clipped from The Sunday Times last Sunday, which refers to Sir David Attenborough presenting a ““near-apocalyptic vision”” of Britain’s future in a BBC documentary ““Climate Change: Britain Under Threat””, which will be screened next Sunday. It presents projected snapshots of Britain in 2020, 2050 and 2080. By 2050, average temperatures could have risen by 2.5°C, and by 2080 by 4°C. That is a massive change. It is poignant because when I turned over the newspaper clipping, I found printed on the other side an advertisement for cheap flights.