The UK government has issued its latest contribution to the ongoing development of the policy framework and actions in response to threats from climate change. In it, the government states that it is in widespead agreement with expert evidence issued last year as to six urgent areas of risk in which more action is needed.

The government’s UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2017 report responds to the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2017 published last year by the independent Committee on Climate Change.

The committee identified six urgent risks. Among these, it reported with high confidence that flooding and coastal change represents a high magnitude risk both now and in the future. It reported shortages in water supply for public, agricultural, energy and industrial use as being a medium confidence, medium magnitude risk now but as a high confidence, high magnitude risk in future. ‘Even low population growth and modest climate change scenarios suggest severe water supply deficits, and with high population growth and more severe climate change these deficits deeped and by the 2050s extend across the UK,’ the committee stated in its report.

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