The Climate Change Committee published analysis on 1 February 2023 setting out UK adaptation investment priorities and recommendations on how they should be funded or privately financed. The committee said a lack of leadership is preventing essential investment to prepare the UK for climate change1.
The CCC stated that the country's adaptation investment needs already include preparation for flooding, future proofing of infrastructure and housing, investment in public water supply and nature restoration. In these areas alone, it said it is plausible that new investment of the order of £10bn per year will be needed to prepare the UK for expected climate change, a figure that could rise further with more dangerous levels of global warming1.
"Our last major assessment of the UK's climate risk found that climate impacts have increased in the UK but that actions to prepare us are not keeping pace. It is no secret that the UK is now experiencing a range of damaging consequences of climate change, but adaptation in the UK remains chronically underfunded and overlooked. This must change."
The committee identified several areas for targeted government action. It said the next National Adaptation Programme (NAP3), due in summer 2023, is an opportunity to set out the vision for what adaptation in the UK should achieve, with a framework of associated goals and metrics. It said the need for investment in adapting to climate change should be included within mandates and strategic priorities for all relevant regulated industry regulators, such as energy and water, and implementing agencies such as the Environment Agency, through resilience standards aligned to national-level objectives. UK public financial institutions, including the UK Infrastructure Bank, British Business Bank, UK Export Finance and British International Investment, should create adaptation finance strategies, setting out that they will independently and collectively ensure that no viable UK climate adaptation project fails for lack of finance or insurance1.
On households, the CCC said homes can benefit from investing in adaptation, leading to reduced vulnerability to flooding or overheating and a more comfortable home, and that incentives to act and a greater awareness of what should be done to prepare for climate risk and reduce emissions is urgently needed. It said public spending must support investments where the societal value is not easily monetised, such as flood defences to protect towns and cities, while in other areas private investment is more appropriate but government must act to lower the barriers that prevent it1.
Why it matters for households
The CCC's assessment places housing and infrastructure among the areas already needing adaptation investment, alongside flooding, public water supply and nature restoration1. For a household, that framing matters because the measures named, such as flood protection and protection against overheating, are physical changes to the home and its surroundings rather than changes in how energy is bought or used. The committee's point about incentives and awareness suggests that, at the time of publication, the framework connecting national adaptation goals to action at the level of an individual property had not been set out. The CCC's recommendations on regulator mandates cover energy and water, the two regulated sectors that most directly shape a home's supply, but the committee did not set out in this analysis how any resulting costs would fall on bills. The document does not quantify household-level costs or savings, and no such figures have been reported1.
What happens next
The CCC points to NAP3, due in summer 2023, as the opportunity to set out the vision for UK adaptation and a framework of goals and metrics1. It also recommends that public financial institutions produce adaptation finance strategies, and that resilience mandates be given to regulators and implementing agencies. No dates for those steps beyond NAP3 are given in the analysis1.