PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Climate Change (16 January 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effect of climate change on the work of her Department; and what steps she is taking in response to that effect.

Asked by:
Darren Jones (Labour)

Tackling climate change is a priority for the whole of Government, which is why the Prime Minister is chairing a new Cabinet Committee on Climate Change to drive action across all sectors of the economy and demonstrate the UK’s global leadership as we prepare to host the crucial COP26 talks in Glasgow in November. Defra is playing its part in achieving net zero, taking forward efforts to reduce emissions from agriculture, waste, land-use and fluorinated gases and to encourage sequestration through forestry.

Defra, as the lead department for domestic adaptation, is responsible for delivering adaptation duties set out in the Climate Change Act 2008. These include preparing, every five years, a UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA), followed by a National Adaptation Programme (NAP), which sets out actions to address the risks identified in the CCRA. The second, most recent, CCRA was published in 2017 and the second NAP was published in July 2018.

Adaptation is rightly integrated throughout the policies and programmes of Government. The NAP includes actions in a broad range of areas, including the natural environment, infrastructure, people and the built environment, business and industry, and local Government. It sets out the actions Government is taking to address the risks posed by a changing climate - including Government investment of £2.6 billion between 2015 and 2021 to better protect 300,000 homes from flooding and coastal erosion. We are also developing and implementing a Nature Recovery Network, which will create or restore 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat in England. Nature recovery can help us to mitigate and adapt to climate change, because our wetlands, forests and grasslands capture carbon and provide other environmental benefits, such as flood management and pollination. Marine Protected Areas (including the 41 new Marine Conservation Zones we designated last year) now cover 40% of English waters and will help enhance the resilience of ecosystems and wildlife to climate change.

Defra will work with other departments through the Cabinet Committee on Climate Change, chaired by the Prime Minister.

Answered by:
Rebecca Pow (Conservative)
23 January 2020