Water among the many sectors ill-prepared for climate change, Committee finds

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) presented a devastating assessment of Progress in adapting to climate change in its report of the same name.

The report assessed the extent to which the UK’s Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) and its implementation are preparing the UK for climate change. It was the Committee’s first statutory progress report on NAP3 and its first to the new Government. 

The CCC found: 

• The UK’s preparations for climate change are inadequate. “Delivery of effective adaptation remains limited and, despite some progress, planning for adaptation continues to be piecemeal and disjointed. The vast majority of our assessment outcomes have the same low scores as in 2023. In terms of adaptation delivery, we do not find evidence to score a single outcome as ‘good’. Adaptation progress is either too slow, has stalled, or is heading in the wrong direction.”

  

  CCC assessment of water infrastructure progress in preparing for climate change

  The situation for water infrastructure is shown in the table. On delivery and implementation, the Committee said water system performance had worsened since 2023: “The continued slow rate of leakage reduction is now clearly inconsistent with meeting the sector’s targets”. However, there was an improved score for identifying and managing interdependencies. 

  
  

  On water policies and plans, reducing demand and system performance had worsened since 2023. The Committee said: “Ofwat’s 2024 price review does not bring forward sufficient credible options for delivering demand and leakage reduction targets despite demonstrated shortfalls of plans.” Again, however, identifying and managing interdependences had improved, as had increasing supply. The CCC cited here updated Water Resource Management Plans and draft regional plans. 

• The Government has yet to change the UK’s inadequate approach to tackling climate risks. “The current government’s manifesto promised to ‘improve resilience and preparation across central government, local authorities, local communities, and emergency services’. It inherited a NAP that fell short of the task of preparing the UK for the climate change we are experiencing today, let alone that coming in the future. Our assessment finds little evidence of a change of course. The slow pace of change indicates that adaptation is not yet a top priority across government.”

• The CCC called on the Government to act without delay to improve the national approach to climate resilience. It recommended four areas of action: 

  • Improve objectives and targets. “This is the vital first step to provide an actionable and measurable framework for the rest of government and beyond. As part of this, the Government must communicate clearly the respective roles of government, the private sector and households in delivering and funding adaptation.” 

  • Improve coordination across government. “Adaptation and climate risks are still only weakly integrated with wider government resilience efforts and other key policy agendas. Greater coordination across activities, spending decisions, sectors, and departments is required. Government adaptation efforts must be better linked with wider resilience planning to ensure that adaptation becomes a true cross-government priority.” 

  • Integrate adaptation into all relevant policies. “The next Spending Review needs to ensure that climate adaptation planning is supported with sufficient resources across government." 

  • Implement monitoring, evaluation and learning across all sectors. "Adequate monitoring and evaluation, underpinned by regular data collection and reporting, is essential to track climate impacts and the effect of adaptation measures at a national level. It is also needed to ensure future planning learns from what is effective.”