Several Government departments are responsible for leading on climate change adaptation and mitigation policy and strategy in England and Wales.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) leads the government’s climate change mitigation policy. Defra has a role in mitigation through its influence over certain important sectors of the economy, and leads on domestic adaptation policy. Since 1 October 2011 the Environment Agency has taken on the new role as the Government’s delivery body in England to help organisations adapt to climate change and provides a comprehensive web-based information service. In March 2010, each Central Government Department published an adaptation plan outlining its proposed actions to meet the challenge of a changing climate.
The Department for Transport (DfT) published its vision for a transport system that would be: “greener, safer and improve the quality of life in our communities, promoting sustainable travel and enhancing economic growth” (DfT, 2010). As part of this vision, the DfT set it’s priorities to:
- Deliver the Coalition’s commitment on high speed rail;
- Secure our railways for the future;
- Encourage sustainable local travel;
- Tackle carbon and congestion on our roads;
- Promote sustainable aviation.
In August 2010, the Coalition Government set out the principles of its approach to adaptation in its response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s (EAC) inquiry on Adapting to Climate Change (published March 2010).
It stated that the EAC report is a welcome endorsement of the need for further action to meet the challenge of climate change and to drive up resilience to current and future risks. The Government agreed with the EAC’s central diagnosis – that adaptation is a crucial area and one that must now become a higher priority.
It also welcomed EAC’s acknowledgement that Government has made good progress in laying the foundations for action on adaptation. However, it also emphasized that government will play its part and give the necessary lead by providing the evidence of climate impacts to enable other “actors” to make the effective decisions at the local level.
Understanding and managing the risks associated with the changing climate is essential for the successful long term resilience of the UK‘s transport networks and their operation. Adapting transport to incorporate resilience to projected climate change impacts such as increased precipitation, rising temperatures and extreme weather events is an important part of developing and maintaining a network that supports long term economic growth and competitiveness.