Expert study highlights climate change threats to UK water infrastructure

The Climate Change Committee's Adaptation Sub-Committee (ASC) has highlighted risks to water assets and other infrastructure that are likely to arise from impacts of climate change including flooding and drought.

The ASC has reported the findings of a three-year study in its UK Climate Change Risk Assessment Evidence Report. These include what it describes as most urgent risks which include loss of water, energy and broadband infrastructure; shortages in the public water supply, and water for agriculture, energy generation and industry; and damage to natural capital, including terrestrial, coastal, marine and freshwater ecosystems, soils and biodiversity.

The research behind the report involved, according to the ASC, "hundreds of leading scientists and experts from the public and private sectors and civil society."

The ASC warned that the vote to leave the European Union could exacerbate the risks. "Some individual risks may change if EU-derived policies and legislation are withdrawn and not replaced by equivalent or better UK measures."