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Adapting to climate change as important as cutting CO2, say MPs
26/03/10
Edited by Tom Bardsley. The government needs to make adapting residential property to the effects of climate change as important as cutting carbon emissions, the parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee has warned.
Chairman Tim Yeo said that if every power station "were switched off tomorrow", some climate change will still take place and it is therefore essential that new and existing homes are protected against more extreme weather.
The committee recommended that builders only deliver houses designed to cope with "inevitable" shifts in the weather expected over the next 50 to 80 years.
Furthermore, the government should "kick-start" retrofitting programmes to improve the adaptation, water efficiency and energy efficiency of existing residential property.
The report claimed that real terms spending on flood defences will also have to increase from £600 million a year to £1 billion by 2035 just to maintain current levels of protection.
Dr Hugh Ellis, chief planner of the Town and Country Planning Association, said the committee's report is a "clear message that we need an urgent step-change in performance" to adapt towns and cities against the impact of climate change.
