‘Adapt or die’ warns Environment Agency ahead of COP26

With less than three weeks to go until the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, the Environment Agency has warned that the UK is not prepared to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

As it urged world leaders to step up to that challenge at COP26 today, it warned that the “climate emergency” can only be successfully tackled through greater focus on adapting to the inevitable climate effects that we are already seeing.

In a report to the government, the agency has warned of more extreme weather leading to increased flooding and drought, sea level rises of up to 78cm by the 2080s, and public water supplies needing more than 3.4 billion extra litres of water per day by 2050. It has urged governments, businesses and society to embrace and invest in adaptation, rather than living with the costs of inaction.

With COP26 less than three weeks away, it has welcomed the UK government’s focus on adaptation as well as mitigation, and the fact that climate adaptation is one of the Summit’s four key goals, but urged that more action is needed at a global level to protect the billions of lives and livelihoods that are at risk.

Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency, said: “The climate crisis is global, but its impacts are in your village, your shop, your home. Adaptation action needs to be integral to government, businesses and communities too and people will soon question why it isn’t – especially when it is much cheaper to invest early in climate resilience than to live with the costs of inaction.

“While mitigation might save the planet, it is adaptation, preparing for climate shocks, that will save millions of lives. Choosing one over the other on the basis of a simple either/or calculation is like telling a bird it only needs one wing to fly.

“Some 200 people died in this summer’s flooding in Germany. That will happen in this country sooner or later, however high we build our flood defences, unless we also make the places where we live, work and travel resilient to the effects of the more violent weather the climate emergency is bringing. It is adapt or die. With the right approach we can be safer and more prosperous. So let’s prepare, act and survive.”