Climate Change

Baroness Brown of Cambridge Excerpts

Tuesday 11th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

That is a spectacular intervention on this subject. Interestingly, at the height of the Trump presidency, the Pentagon put out a piece of work where it referred to climate change as the “threat multiplier”. The nexus between the security implications of climate change and the environmental ones is absolutely fundamental to what we are trying to achieve. We are going to see a much more dangerous world, unless we can tackle these precise issues.

[Baroness Brown of Cambridge (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as chair of the adaptation committee of the Climate Change Committee. Very hot weather often goes with periods of drought. Can the Minister tell me what he is doing to make sure that the farmers of the fenlands are able to water their crops this summer?

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

The noble Baroness raises a really important point. What we are doing through our environmental land management schemes and future farming is to try to make farming more resilient in so many ways. One of the great difficulties we face in the east and the south of England is that we have rainfall levels in many parts that are equivalent to some sub-Saharan African countries, and using water, slowing it and using it more sensibly, with the production of more reservoirs, is crucial. Also, the Bills that this House has passed, such as the one on gene technology, producing crops that are more resilient to drought, are really important.