The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has released a new report, “Investment for a well-adapted UK”, on the UK’s investment in climate change adaptation. The report calls for greater investment in UK climate resilience, identifies barriers to delivery, and highlights how investment can be scaled up.

Dr Ben Caldecott, CGFI Director and CCC Adaptation Committee Member, said:

“The UK faces growing climate impacts and needs to rapidly increase public and private investment in climate resilience. These investments will reduce future economic damage caused by floods and heatwaves, and can enhance growth and improve the sustainability of the public finances over time.

“Government funding and public financial institutions have a critical role to play in unlocking private investment but we also need others to play their part. Regulated industries, like the railways and water sector, need to have updated mandates so they can increase investment in climate defences. Financial regulators and government policy must push companies and financial institutions to do much more, including through mandatory adaptation planning and enhanced supervision“

“Integrating climate risk into economic and financial decision-making across society is essential for urgently needed investments in our national climate resilience to materialise.”

The case studies in adaptation finance supporting the report include a case study from Dr Nicola Ranger, CGFI Director of Climate and Environmental Analytics. The case study highlights how Covid recovery spending directly and indirectly contributed to greater climate resilience – such as via liquidity support to subnational public entities.

Report recommendations included:

• Greater clarity on adaptation goals and roles for investment, including via the upcoming Third National Adaptation Plan and 2023 Green Finance Strategy;
• Resilience mandates for regulators, with regulators providing guidance on physical risk and risk interdependencies and regular climate risk stress testing;
• Building on the work of the Transition Plan Taskforce, for which CGFI is part of the Secretariat, to define standards for high-quality adaptation plans featuring physical climate risk management;
• Help to unlock investment via public financial institutions with sustainability-linked instruments and adaptation finance strategies.