Some UK Coastal Communities May Have to Move Because of Climate Change
Some coastal communities around the UK may have to eventually be moved because of the scale of flooding that climate change threatens to bring, the Environment Agency has warned.
In a report on the UK’s long term flooding strategy, the regulator said the country should be prepared for sea level rises and the flooding that 4°C of warming would bring.
At 1°C higher than temperatures are expected to rise with governments’ climate plans today, and 2°C more than the Paris climate accord demands, the agency is saying the UK should be braced for the worst.
Flooding has been repeatedly cited by government agencies, advisers and scientists as the biggest risk to the UK from climate change.
The EA said the government will need to spend at least £1bn every year up to 2065 on flood defences to protect buildings and infrastructure, almost double the £520m it is spending each year between 2016 and 2021.
All new housing developments and other building must be resilient to flooding, the group said, though it stopped short of calling for a ban on building on floodplains.
But bigger and better flood defences alone will not be enough, said the agency’s chair, Emma Boyd.
“It is not realistic to try to manage more increasingly intense flooding and sea level rise with limitlessly high walls and barriers,” she wrote in a foreword to the report.
For example, homeowners recovering from flooding should be encouraged to build resilience to flooding into their property afterwards, such as by installing raised electrics and flood doors. Around 5 million people in England are currently at risk of flooding.
Environment minister Therese Coffey said “preparing the country is a priority for the government”, which she added was launching a call for evidence on flood and coastal erosion risks.