Is the UK prepared to adapt to climate change?

In previous years, mitigation has been the focus method for addressing climate change and its effects. However, adaptation is becoming increasingly recognised as necessary to manage temperature rise.

Climate change adaptation refers to the actions required to manage the effects of unavoidable expected climate change. We have sadly reached a point where even if global targets to limit global warming are reached, there will still be changes due to unavoidable temperature rise that has already begun that will require adaptation.

Climate change is undeniable, with the UK’s recent high temperatures and heatwaves being just one of many examples of how we are feeling the effects of it more and more in our everyday lives.

In May, just as the wave of heatwaves in the UK began, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) published their report on climate adaptation. The CCC was established as part of the Climate Change Act 2008 and are responsible for advising the UK on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Since the Climate Change Act was passed 20 years ago, the CCC has assessed the risks of climate change every 5 years and produced an adaptation action plan, with the previous one released in 2023. This most recent report, which is titled ‘A Well-Adapted UK – the Fourth Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk’, outlined how the CCC feel the UK is underprepared for the predicted, and near-certain, 2 degree rise in mean temperatures by 2050. This is by far their strongest communication yet, highlighting the significance of climate change adaptation as an issue.

With temperatures reaching over 37 degrees in the UK over the last few weeks, we are already getting an insight into what these higher temperatures mean for society. Schools were closed, hospital appointments cancelled and the Met Office urged for essential travel only. In the future, temperatures are predicted to push to 40°C and 45°C more often with national and global risks mounting as the temperatures do.

As the CCC concluded in their report, what governments have been doing to adapt clearly isn’t working. Climate risks are accelerating, and the consequences are becoming more obvious with every news story about extreme weather events all over the world.

Despite the importance of adaptation, we must recognise that it shouldn’t be seen as a replacement solution for reducing climate change. Mitigation remains essential to limit emissions and other factors and prevent the most severe impacts. Preparing for the impacts we can no longer avoid should not be seen as accepting climate change as giving up, but instead as a necessary step to protect the people and places most at risk. The challenge now is ensuring that adaptation receives the attention and investment needed to build a UK that is resilient to the changing climate.