Speech by Joan Ruddock MP to Three Regions Climate Change Group Project Launch ‘Your Home in a Changing Climate: Retrofitting Existing Homes for Climate Change Impacts’ - London - 26 February 2008
Thank you Gerry [Acher] and the Three Regions Climate Change Group for the invitation to speak here today.
I would very much like to congratulate the Group and express my support for the work you have done on adaptation and the built environment.
The work you do is an excellent example of how to ensure that the risks and opportunities of a changing climate are better understood.
We know that there are options available to us now. And that ultimately doing nothing will cost us more.
Yet it is the sum of many decisions by individual organisations and people which will make the difference between success and failure.
These decisions need to be taken in the context of decades rather than years. A timeframe that, let’s be honest, we are not always used to considering.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the housing sector. It not only makes up a large part of our built environment – but it is, of course, also where we live, raise families and build our communities.
All 22 million homes in the UK, housing all sections of society, will be affected in some way by climate change. So that is a clear challenge for us all – how confident are we that, without action, our homes will be able to withstand our future climate?
The report, which we’re launching today, is a welcome start to the debate on how to ensure our homes remain comfortable and safe as our climate continues to change.
We can expect warmer, wetter winters; hotter, drier summers; and more frequent extreme weather events. These impacts will not be felt uniformly but will vary regionally. And if we take the Three Regions area as an example we will see that, as the report says, around a third of the estimated 2000 deaths caused by the 2003 heatwave were here in London. And the problem was made worse by the urban heat island effect which adds 5 to 6 degrees Celsius to night time temperatures. The impact on individuals is unequal too as it is the most vulnerable groups in our society who are affected the most.
Along with temperature change, we expect water availability to decrease in the South East in particular. Climate change scenarios predict a possible reduction in summer rainfall of up to 50% by 2080, combined, of course, with increasing pressure for water.
Paradoxically, there is also likely to be more flooding. Last summer was the wettest on record. The flooding which occurred across the UK, including the three regions area, resulted in an estimated insurance bill of £3 billion.
At the same time, the pressure on infrastructure and natural resources across the three regions will be particularly high over the coming decades.
With such impacts and pressures in mind, we need to build resilience into our infrastructure: our transport network, our commercial and public buildings and of course, the buildings which we individually value the most, our homes.
When we consider the geographical variation of impacts and huge differences in style, construction and location of homes, it is clear that the challenge is considerable. But it is one which we must overcome.
We need a sustainable approach to adapting our homes for climate change impacts. We also need to ensure that our goal of reducing CO2 does not run contrary to our need to adapt – and vice versa.
There will not always be a straight-forward answer. The most likely response to the need to keep cool at home is to install an air conditioning unit. But we can imagine the impact on our CO2 emissions if everyone did just that.
The Three Regions report shows us that there are low-cost, sustainable options available. For example, installing a low flow shower saves water but also the energy used to heat that water. Winter insulation, which keeps homes warm in the winter, can also keep homes cool in the summer. And relocating white goods on a plinth above a likely flood level will reduce the cost of recovery, if the householder is so unlucky as to be flooded.
I believe this work demonstrates that it is work at the regional and local level that will be crucial in making the UK more resilient to climate change.
Yet, for this to be truly effective and to provide the support necessary, we need frameworks at the national and international level. Climate change is a top priority for the Government. And we should be proud that the UK is seen as a world leader.
Our role at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Bali was key. This led to a historic agreement to work toward achieving a global climate agreement by the end of 2009.
And our Climate Change Bill is the first of its kind in the world. Not only does it set statutory targets for emissions reductions, it introduces a legislative framework for adaptation. This includes a statutory duty for Government, at regular intervals, to assess and report on the risks of climate change, and set out a programme on how these risks will be overcome.
We also have a power in the Bill to request reports and action plans on adaptation from public bodies and statutory undertakers, such as water companies.
And at the local level, for the first time, we have introduced climate change adaptation into the new local government performance indicators. This is to help ensure that local authorities are more prepared for climate change risks - to service delivery, to local infrastructure, businesses and the public.
When the Bill has progressed through Parliament, and we hope this will be by the end of this summer, we intend to publish our Adaptation Policy Framework. This cross-government framework will introduce a strategic approach for adaptation across the UK. It will identify key points for Government action and define roles and responsibilities.
At the heart of our work on climate change is the recognition that it is a cross-cutting issue. As an example, our new water strategy ‘Future Water’ launched at the beginning of this month has adaptation at the core of its message. Of particular importance are the issues of water efficiency, maintaining sustainable supplies, and surface water drainage.
The Pitt Review highlighted that we have important lessons to learn from the 2007 floods. That is why we have allocated £34.5 million to implement the recommendations.
Defra is also currently funding a pilot scheme to offer homeowners and small businesses in high-risk areas a grant to make their properties more resilient to flooding.
In addition, we have published the Planning Policy Statement on climate change - covering both mitigation and adaptation.
We will continue to seek to mainstream adaptation across Government policy. This includes evaluating our planning systems, building regulations and existing buildings through the lens of adaptation.
To guide us in this challenge, Defra established and continues to fund the UK Climate Impacts Programme, ‘UKCIP’ for short. Their guidance, support and tools help all organisations assess their vulnerability to climate change and to take action.
UKCIP, and the Met Office’s Hadley Centre, are producing a new set of climate change scenarios - UKCIP08 - due to be launched this autumn.
The results will support risk-based decision-making on adaptation. This is a major tool for all of us in both the public and private sectors in understanding what risks we face and how we can respond.
Ultimately it comes down to making sensible decisions over the coming years and decades, to ensure our homes are sustainable and have the resilience to withstand climate change.
Certainly government – central, regional and local – has a vital role to play but not in isolation. We all need to understand unavoidable climate change. This includes housing associations, the insurance and finance sectors, landlords and all of us as individual homeowners.
We also need to recognise the important role that educators and skill providers will play, ensuring all professionals have an adaptation skill set that is up to delivering the changes we need.
This is our challenge and the report being launched today offers a step in the right direction. I very much welcome its findings on how our homes might be adapted to the impacts of climate change, and for helping us all to start the process of finding sustainable solutions.
Page published: 28 February 2008