Britain ‘must adapt or risk German-style flood disaster’

THE UK must ‘adapt or die’ as flooding and droughts become more frequent due to climate change, the Environment Agency has warned.

Deadly events such as this summer’s flooding in Germany will hit here if our country does not make itself resilient to the more violent weather the eco emergency is bringing, said the organisation’s chairman Emma Howard Boyd.

In her speech, made ahead of the UN’s Cop2 climate summit in Glasgow, she stated that flood barriers or reducing water use are just as important as lowering our greenhouse gas emissions.

She also warned that adaptation to climate change was being neglected by most of the world, with the focus on reducing emissions.

In a report to Parliament on how Britain will adapt to the problem, the EA said water supplies – which are already challenged by pollution – would come under greater pressure, and make it harder to ensure clean and plentiful

‘It impacts in your village and home’

water. Traditional flood defences will not be able to prevent all flooding and coastal erosion.

The natural world cannot adapt as fast as the climate is changing, the EA said.

Population growth, hotter drier summers and rising sea levels will also increase water demands. If no further action is taken between 2025 and 2050, more than 3.4billion extra litres of water a day will be needed for public supplies.

With 2C global warming – below the level for which the world is currently on track – England’s winter rainfall will increase by six per cent by the 2050s, with summer rainfall down 15 per cent.

Miss Howard Boyd said: ‘The climate crisis is global, but its impacts are in your village, your shop, your home.

‘It is adapt or die. With the right approach we can be safer and more prosperous. So let’s prepare, act and survive.’ The warnings come in the EA’s third adaptation report, submitted to the Government under the Climate Change Act.