Some UK towns may need to be abandoned as climate change increases the threat of floods, the Environment Agency (EA) has warned.
The EA said urgent action will be required to prepare for an average global temperature rise of 4C, as the UK faces the prospect of flooding that would not be held back by higher land defences.
The Independent says the warning comes amid a “growing number of weather disasters,” while The Guardian adds that the warning “makes clear that some areas of the UK and some homes and businesses cannot be protected”. The Sun adds that in the future “whole communities might have to be evacuated”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The EA believes that homes in high risk areas must be redesigned to cope with floods, with raised electrics and hard flooring. It warns that climate change and population growth will double the number of properties built on the flood plain over the next five decades.
Chairwoman Emma Howard Boyd warned “we cannot win a war against water” by building higher and higher flood defences and that resilience-measures need to be rolled out.
The government agency is publishing its long-term strategy for managing floods and coastal erosion. It outlines how the UK would cope with up to 4C of warming – a far more dramatic temperature shift than the 1.5C or 2C limits agreed internationally. It expects more intense bursts of rain and continuing coastal erosion.
The EA demands that government policy ensures that all publicly funded infrastructure is resilient to flooding and coastal change by 2050. “We can’t win a war against water by building away climate change with infinitely high flood defences,” said Howard Boyd.
She said property owners must be encouraged to rebuild homes after flooding in safer locations, but added that in some neighbourhoods “the scale of the threat may be so significant that recovery will not always be the best long term solution” and communities would need help to “move out of harm's way”.
In response to the news, Environment Minister Therese Coffey accepted that flooding and coastal erosion can have “terrible consequences for people, businesses and the environment”.
She claimed the government is providing £2.6bn over six years, delivering more than 1,500 projects to better protect 300,000 homes, but she added that “the threat of climate change will mean an increasing risk and preparing the country is a priority for the government, and the nation as a whole”.
Environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth said the “focus must be first and foremost on slashing emissions so that we can avoid the worst consequences of climate chaos in the first place”.
-
Bluetoothing: the phenomenon driving HIV spike in FijiUnder the Radar ‘Blood-swapping’ between drug users fuelling growing health crisis on Pacific island
-
Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetimeFeature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
-
Book reviews: ‘We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution’ and ‘Will There Ever Be Another You’Feature The many attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution and Patricia Lockwood’s struggle with long Covid
-
China vows first emissions cut, sidelining USSpeed Read The US, the world’s No. 2 emitter, did not attend the New York summit
-
How clean-air efforts may have exacerbated global warmingUnder the Radar Air pollution artificially cooled the Earth, ‘masking’ extent of temperature increase
-
Earth's seasons are out of whackUnder the radar The seasons' unfixed nature in different regions of the planet may have impacted biodiversity and evolution
-
When does autumn begin?The Explainer The UK is experiencing a 'false autumn', as climate change shifts seasonal weather patterns
-
How 'freakosystems' are becoming the normThe explainer Ecosystems are changing permanently
-
Cloudbursts: what are the 'rain bombs' hitting India and Pakistan?The Explainer The sudden and intense weather event is almost impossible to forecast and often leads to deadly flash-flooding and landslides
-
What do heatwaves mean for Scandinavia?Under the Radar A record-breaking run of sweltering days and tropical nights is changing the way people – and animals – live in typically cool Nordic countries
-
Blue whales have gone silent and it's posing troubling questionsUnder the radar Warming oceans are the answer
