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<p>The Government’s commitment to addressing the risks from climate change is as strong
as ever. The Prime Minister’s climate change committee will drive further action across
Government and we recognise the benefits of taking early actions. The United Kingdom
has been a leader in this area for more than a decade; while continuing to reduce
our contribution to climate change, we are also taking robust action to improve the
resilience of our people, economy and environment.</p><p> </p><p>In line with our
25 Year Environment Plan, the second National Adaptation Programme (NAP) sets out
an ambitious range of actions that the Government will implement in the following
five years.</p><p> </p><p>The second NAP is informed by the second Climate Change
Risk Assessment (CCRA) which was published in 2017 and highlights priority risk areas
such as flooding and coastal change risks to communities and infrastructure; risks
to health and wellbeing from high temperatures; and risks to natural capital (including
terrestrial, coastal, marine and freshwater ecosystems).</p><p> </p><p>Adaptation
is rightly integrated throughout the policies and programmes of Government. The NAP
is a cross-department collaboration, bringing together Government’s policies on managing
climate risks in one place.</p><p> </p><p>This means that teams across Government
are involved in a wide range of adaptation activity. Within Defra, this includes embedding
adaptation into biodiversity, agriculture, peat, water, and floods’ policies and programmes,
amongst others. Beyond Defra, adaptation is mainstreamed into areas such as housing,
infrastructure and health. The mainstreaming of adaptation across Government makes
it difficult to ascertain exact numbers on staffing who have responsibility for adaptation
embedded into their roles.</p><p> </p><p>Defra is the overall lead Department for
climate adaptation, though responsibility for ensuring that policies and programmes
are climate resilient lies across Departments and policy leads. Our support to the
updated UK climate projections (UKCP18), published in 2018, provides an additional
tool to help everyone better understand the changes to climate and its risks and make
decisions on that basis. This will make an important contribution to building resilience
throughout the UK.</p>
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