Baroness Hayman
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El Niño: Impact
Baroness Hayman Excerpts(2 months, 1 week ago)
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Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)
The noble Baroness is absolutely right. We saw during Covid and see during every crisis moment that communities come together, and the church and faith communities tend to be at the heart of a response. Details about how communities can respond are available on gov.uk/prepare, which outlines not just what is available and what individuals can do but what communities can do to prepare for any extreme event, whether related to a pandemic or to severe weather. We thank everyone who steps up at times of national emergency, especially those within our faith communities who take local leadership roles.
Baroness Hayman (CB)
My Lords, returning to the debate we had about adaptation to climate change, would the Minister agree with me that, as well as having the plans in place for how we respond to an immediate emergency, we have to look at the longer term? This has happened already, and it will happen more. Does she agree that we need to design and adapt buildings so that they are comfortable and safe for people during hot weather episodes?
Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)
The noble Baroness is absolutely right: for hot weather and any form of extreme weather, we need to reflect that in design but also in how we look after each other. The national security strategy references climate change 12 times. This is a core part of who we are. As my noble friend referenced, we are seeing an increase in number of wildfires year on year as our climate changes. In preparation for this Question, there was a meeting with the Met Office to talk about the extremes and how we analyse them. It is also about the new modelling that we can do: how we will use AI in addition to traditional modelling so that we can better assess long-term patterns too is important, so that we can make sure that, as a Government, we are working across all sectors, whether building in design or working with our schools and hospitals to make sure they have the right resilience plans in place as and when needed.