The Climate Change Committee (CCC) is warning in a new report published today that the British way of life is under threat from heat, flooding and drought - and that the UK was built for a climate that no longer exists today.

The report says:

“The UK was built for a climate that no longer exists today and will be increasingly distant in years to come. While efforts to keep global warming well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels must remain a priority, the world is not yet on track for this. At a minimum, the UK should prepare for the weather extremes that will be experienced if global warming levels reach 2°C above pre-industrial levels by 2050. At the high end of possibilities, reaching 4°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century cannot yet be ruled out.”

In the detailed 554 page report, A Well-Adapted UK, the CCC sets out a comprehensive package of solutions to address the growing impacts of climate change affecting every aspect of life in the UK.

The Government’s independent climate advisors identify better cooling, flood protection and a more secure water supply as the most critical priorities to protect the UK from the three biggest climate risks – heat, flooding and drought.

The CCC says we are already seeing disruption today and without action these risks will escalate. By 2050, 92% of homes are likely to overheat, peak river flows will be up to 45% higher and water supply shortfalls could exceed five billion litres per day.

The cost of inaction is far greater than the cost of acting now. The Committee’s proposals require investment of around £11 billion a year, split broadly evenly between public and private funding. 

Without adaptation the cost of climate change to public welfare is predicted to rise to between 1-5% of UK GDP by 2050 under a 2°C global warming level, equivalent to £60-£260 billion per year.

Baroness Brown, Chair of the Adaptation Committee, said:

“Our lives, our landscapes and our homes are under increasing pressure from the changing climate. But we are not powerless. In an increasingly unstable world, being well adapted to climate change is fundamental to securing our food, energy and economic security.  

“This report carries a message of hope. The solutions already exist, and proven technologies are available now to help the UK adapt effectively. With the right decisions and actions, we can protect the people and the places we love.

“We can protect patients and residents in overheated hospitals and care homes, children in nurseries and schools, and communities facing repeated flooding. We can support our farmers to maintain our food supplies. We can keep sports pitches usable, high streets open for business, and iconic British music festivals running safely.

“The public want to see change and the government now has an opportunity to step up and protect our way of life.”

The Adaptation Committee’s eight key areas for government action are:

• Protect people from heat. Invest in cooling – including air conditioning, heat pumps and green shading – across key public services. Government should commit to a national maximum temperature for workplaces to protect workers’ safety and incentivise the deployment of cooling.
• Manage flood risk. Long‑term investment in measures such as flood defences, effective emergency response, and natural solutions like wetlands are essential. Annual flood risk investment must rise to around £1.6–£2.2 billion each year across the UK to prevent risks increasing further. Government should also manage development in flood-prone areas carefully, avoiding new construction where risks are not adequately reduced. 
• Avoid water shortages. Maintain a strong regulatory focus on drought, scale up sustainable water storage, accelerate leakage reduction and cut demand. All new homes should be water efficient from the outset.
• Support nature to adapt. Increase public investment in nature restoration and modernise regulation to support ecosystems to survive and thrive under future climate conditions, not those of the past.
• Keep farming viable. Support farmers with the skills, information and training they need to make climate resilient decisions. Actions include crop diversification and on‑farm water storage to reduce drought risk and build resilience.
• Understand the risks to food security. Improve the quality, consistency and availability of information on climate risks across the food system. Government should make the Adaptation Reporting Power mandatory and extend it to large food companies, reflecting their role in food security and price stability. They should also consider the potential for large-scale national food stockpiling.
• Maintain access to insurance. Ensure the right protections are in place and the costs of extreme weather are shared so insurance remains affordable and available. Urgent clarity is needed on the future of flood reinsurance, including the Flood Re scheme, ahead of its current 2039 end date.
• Adapt infrastructure to avoid cascading disruption. Design and maintain transport, energy and telecommunications systems to operate safely under future climate conditions. Government and regulators must take a more structured approach to managing dependencies between infrastructure systems to avoid widespread disruption.

investment in adaptation across UK needs to be around £11 billion per year

Image source: A Well-Adapted UK Adaptation Investment Analysis

The report is accompanied by a separate paper setting out supplementary in-house investment analysis conducted by the CCC to estimate the investment required to deliver a number of actions identified in the Well-Adapted UK systems.

The analysis used data from research projects on cost-effective adaptation and external literature to estimate the scale of investment needed to deliver key actions out to the 2050s.

The investment analysis does not cover all systems and actions in the Well-Adapted UK report due to data limitations but is intended to provide high-level evidence on the scale of investment required in adaptation.

Key messages include:

• The investment in adaptation across the UK would need to be around £11 billion per year (range £7–22 billion, 2025 prices), across the actions costed for this analysis. The annual level is roughly equivalent to 2% of the annual investment in the UK in the 2025.
• Roughly two-thirds of this investment can be attributed to three broad categories of actions: passive and active cooling (35% of total investment), flood risk management (21% of total investment) and water storage, efficiency and demand-side measures (11% of total investment).
• Current funding norms would lead to roughly even contributions from the public and private sector. An assessment of the current funding norms of similar actions in each system shows that approximately 36% of this investment is in areas usually funded by the public sector, with 41% likely to fall within private sector delivery, and 23% undetermined.

Alongside the Fourth Climate Change Risk Assessment , the CCC has published an Independent Assessment Technical Report running out to some 823 pages. The Met Office led a consortium of experts from across academia, the public, private and third Sector to develop the Technical Report.

Click here to download the full report A well-Adapted UK the Fourth Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk

Click here to download the supplementary investment analysis A Well-Adapted UK Adaptation Investment Analysis

Click here to download the A Well-Adapted UK Technical Report