NIC and CCC call for urgent action to protect infrastructure from climate risks

The National Infrastructure Commission and Climate Change Committee have written jointly to the UK government urging ministers to take steps to improve the resilience of key infrastructure services to the effects of climate change.

Building on recent reports by both organisations, the advisory bodies set out five steps to accelerate national adaptation planning to protect key networks.

The first recommendation is to set clear and measurable goals for resilience, and action plans to deliver them. The Climate Change Committee’s recent Adaptation Progress Report found very limited evidence of the implementation of adaptation at the scale needed to prepare fully for climate risks facing UK infrastructure, or more broadly for cities, communities, the economy and ecosystems.

The NIC and CCC's second step asks the Government to ensure these standards are developed in time to inform forthcoming regulatory price control periods (which set investment levels for operators).

The third step is to give explicit duties for resilience to all infrastructure regulators. Ofwat’s resilience duty has been central to resilience planning in the water sector and similar duties need to be given to Ofgem, Ofcom and the Office of Rail and Road. This would also be an opportune time to ensure each of these regulators has a duty to support delivery of Net Zero.

The fourth step is to ensure Cabinet-level oversight of interdependencies and whole-system resilience and the final step asked Government to embed resilience in infrastructure planning as we move to an economy more reliant on electricity.

The letter was sent to Oliver Dowden MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Thérèse Coffey MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Read the full letter here.