2017 Report to Parliament – Progress in preparing for climate change

1. Outline

This report sets out the Adaptation Sub-Committee’s second assessment of the National Adaptation Programme, which drives action to prepare for climate change impacts.

2. Key findings

The report finds that:

• some action has been taken to address the risks from climate change, including important steps to fund and improve river and coastal flood defences and to improve the resilience of energy, transport and water infrastructure to severe weather
• the overall state of the natural environment is worsening, reducing its resilience to climate change
• recent storms show that national infrastructure remains vulnerable to severe weather
• risks of surface water flooding in our towns and cities have still not been tackled

It also finds that the next National Adaptation Programme:

• will need to be strengthened in the first half of 2018
• must address priority areas including flood risks to homes and businesses, risks to the natural environment, including to soils and biodiversity, and risks to human health and wellbeing from higher temperatures
• must be more ambitious, with policies that make a measurable difference and with clearer mechanisms to track progress

3. Supporting materials

• Chapter 2 – Annex 1: update on NAP actions
• Chapter 3 – Natural environment – dashboard
• Chapter 3 – Natural environment – charts and data
• Chapter 4 – People and the built environment – dashboard
• Chapter 4 – People and the built environment – charts and data
• Chapter 5 – Infrastructure – dashboard
• Chapter 5 – Infrastructure – charts and data
• Chapter 6 – Business – dashboard
• Chapter 6 – Business – charts and data

4. Supporting research

• Local resilience forum interviews (Jacobs)
• Updated indicators of climate change risk and adaptation action in England (ADAS)
• Resilience of buildings to flooding and high temperatures (BRE)
• Impact of flood alleviation schemes on long-term flood risk (JBA)

5. Infograph

An infographic summarising some key points of the 2017 Report to Parliament. To download a high-res version of the infographic, click here.