Climate ‘bigger problem than Brexit’

CLIMATE change is a bigger problem than Brexit as ‘it could literally kill us’, Environment Agency head Sir James Bevan warned yesterday.

He said building a ‘broad coalition’ against climate change could help heal a divided country.

In a speech to the Whitehall and Industry Group charity, he said: ‘You can worry about Brexit if you want, but you’ll be worrying about the wrong thing. If you rank the things that could literally kill us on a scale of one to ten, Brexit isn’t even a one. Climate change is a ten.’

Sir James added that there were similarities between Brexit and climate change in that the timescales of both are ‘uncertain’ and ‘the consequences highly contested’.

Sir James, a career diplomat and former High Commissioner to India, said the increase in greenhouse gases would lead to rising seas, water shortages extreme weather, flooding, coastal erosion and droughts’.

The Environment Agency, which has more than 11,000 employees, is the government-funded body in charge of protecting air, water and soil quality, and flood protection.