12 May 2021
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4 min read
Flood risk is expected to intensify across England as climate change worsens in the coming decades
Support for community groups, insurance, property risk training, and climate resilient infrastructure among measures in new strategy
Community flood groups, property resilience training, insurance support, and the development of long term regional plans to combat and adapt to the growing threats caused by devastating floods have been established as key pillars of a new flood risk strategy unveiled by the Environment Agency today.
The new flooding action outlines how the Environment Agency (EA) and its partners aim to implement its flood and coastal erosion strategy in England, amid growing concern about the intensifying impacts of climate change on UK homes, businesses, and infrastructure.
Many parts of the country already faced devastating floods in recent years, and England currently remains on course for 59 per cent more winter rainfall and 'once-in-a-century' sea level events every year by 2100, according to the Agency.
As such, there is a pressing need to build greater resilience to, and understanding of, the changing climate across England, so that communities, local councils, national government, and businesses can work together more closely to combat flood risk, it said.
"It's clear that the climate emergency is bringing more extreme weather and so we need to step up our efforts yet further to meet the rising flood and coastal erosion risk," said Caroline Douglass, the Environment Agency's executive director for flood and coastal risk management. "By harnessing the collective power of the Environment Agency, government, all our partners and local communities, this action plan will help to better protect over hundreds of thousands more homes and businesses in the years ahead."
The FCERM (Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management) Strategy Action Plan sets out a range of measures involving local authorities, businesses, farmers, voluntary organisations, and infrastructure providers to ensure the nation is better prepared to escalating flood risks.
These include working with the Chartered Institute of Water & Environmental Management to develop independent training and accreditation for the installation of property flood resilience, and developing "adaptive pathways" for the Thames Estuary, Humber Estuary, Severn Valley, and Yorkshire to help better plan for flooding and coastal change.
The EA said it would work with Highways England to develop a pipeline of investments in more resilient infrastructure, and also spearhead efforts alongside the government-backed insurance scheme Flood Re and insurance trade bodies to draw up a specialist category of brokers and insurers to help those businesses and households struggling to access flood insurance.
Moreover, the EA promised to work with the National Farmers' Union (NFU) and Natural England to boost nature-based flood resilience measures, and to launch a new National Flood Forum to establish a network of community-led volunteers to support people living in flood risk areas.
The action plan sits alongside a £5.2bn investment programme promised by the government to help better protect 336,000 properties from flooding and coastal erosion threats by 2027.
The new strategy came as the government yesterday announced £12m in new funding to support developing countries in preparing and responding to disasters, including those linked to climate change, as the UK steps up its efforts to rally countries towards a positive outcome at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in six months' time.
The £12m of funding is earmarked for the Start Network, a group of more than 50 aid agencies worldwide working to respond to humanitarian crises, with the money used to support early action initiatives such as heatwave and drought forecasting, and a new global network of response hubs.
It comes in addition to £8m funding confirmed yesterday for the Centre for Disaster Protection to help climate-vulnerable countries deal with crises such as climate-driven extreme weather and pandemics, the government said, as part of a wider £48m package of climate support announced earlier this year.
Between 1970 and 2019, almost 80 per cent of disasters worldwide involved weather, climate, and water-related hazards, according to the government. And, from these disasters, 70 per cent of deaths occurred in developing countries, with droughts and floods the deadliest and most costly events, it said.
Last year the government cut its global aid budget, in a move widely criticised by green groups which warned it could harm climate-related projects in developing nations and undermine the UK's negotating position at the COP26 Summit. But last week Boris Johnson issued a plea to world leaders ahead of the upcoming G7 Summit in Cornwall for them to stump up a "substantial pile of cash" to help developing nations curb greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of global warming.
Securing support from developing nations is key to delivering a successful outcome at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow later this year, and the UK is therefore under pressure to encourage wealthier nations to collectively meet the Paris Agreement's $100bn per year climate finance target, which is currently expected to be missed.
Announcing the latest funding yesterday at a meeting of the global Risk-informed Early Action Partnership, Energy Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan - who also serves as the UK's International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for COP26 - urged countries to step up their support for climate-vulnerable nations.
"As climate-related disasters increase in ferocity and frequency we must take action to better prepare for and prevent them, to save lives, protect livelihoods and reduce suffering," she said. "As we count down to COP26, I look forward to working together to continue to scale up early action worldwide."
