Climate Change: Resilience

Lord Katz Excerpts

Tuesday 10th November 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lennie]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to further improve the UK’s resilience to the impact of climate change.

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Katz) (Lab)]

My Lords, the Climate Change Committee’s fourth independent assessment of UK climate change risk sets out a worsening picture of climate change impacts. We are committed to improving the nation’s resilience to climate change. That is why we have set out our intention to develop specific, measurable objectives and detailed delivery plans for the fourth national adaptation programme in 2028, in line with the two degrees centigrade of warming by 2050, as advised by the Climate Change Committee.

[Lord Lennie (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for that Answer. While the report did point to measurable and welcome improvements that have been made, there was an apparent absence of co-ordination across government departments, meaning that resilience is more patchy and less effective than it might otherwise be. Have the new Labour Government seized the initiative by ensuring reach across all departments in the face of the undeniable human-caused climate change that this country and the world now face?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend is absolutely right in his analysis. The Government agree that the third national adaptation programme, which was published in 2023, was weak, particularly in its lack of clear targets and limited co-ordination across government departments. For the fourth iteration of the adaptation programme, we are putting in place a stronger framework, built on specific, measurable objectives, which will prepare this country for at least two degrees’ centigrade of warming by 2050. This Government are taking a more comprehensive, joined-up and strategic approach to climate adaptation, based on co-ordinating across systems and outcomes rather than simply addressing isolated risks. We have robust governance in place to ensure that departments are fully engaged at all levels to deliver on climate adaptation.

[Baroness Grender (LD)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that a year of drought, wildfire and now flood warnings shows that resilience cannot be left to individual sectors, including outside government? Will the Government commit to a national wildfire strategy, as the farmers are urging, and confirm that the review of critical infrastructure resilience standards that is due by the end of the year will include water supply?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is of course correct in emphasising the joined-up nature of the various threats to our country’s resilience from climate change, whether it is drought, as discussed yesterday, or the problems of flooding, with extremely variable weather systems expanding the problem. On wildfires, she will be aware that the Prime Minister called a wildfire summit at the end of last month, which brought together all the necessary stakeholders to seriously consider how we can improve our resilience to them. She is right in saying that the number of wildfires has increased. Over the summer, there were a record 1,300 wildfire incidents in England and Wales. It is a serious problem. Our focus is indeed on building resilience through better prevention, preparedness, response and strategy, which can help protect communities, nature and critical infrastructure from the growing threat of wildfires.

[Lord Deben (Con)]

Would the Minister accept that the real problem in the question of wildfires is that our firefighters do not have proper equipment? In my former constituency, they had to choose between facing the dangers not properly clad or having heat problems themselves. What are the Government doing urgently, as we are likely to have constant wildfires as a result of climate change?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

I am not entirely sure it would be fair to say what the noble Lord was implying. It is the case that the Government, from the Prime Minister downwards, take this issue of wildfires very seriously. In terms of response, firefighters on the front line will be boosted by additional specialist wildfire teams and state-of-the-art wildfire-specific personal protective equipment, backed up by £45 million. Also, the RAF’s Chinook helicopters and A400M aircraft will be equipped so that they can join in the fight against wildfires and be ready when requested to help crews across the UK battle blazes where they find them.

[Baroness Brown of Cambridge (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as chair of the Adaptation Committee of the Climate Change Committee. It is good to hear of the Government’s commitment to more specific targets for addressing adaptation, but, in the light of their recent announcement that there will be no more changes to building regulations, will the Minister tell us how the Government will ensure that new homes are going to be fit for the future in terms of resilience to flooding, resistance to overheating and, of course, the outstanding water efficiency we need to address the increasing incidence of drought conditions in this country?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for her question and, more importantly, for her work in this area and her long-term commitment to ensuring that we have stronger resilience. To be clear, with regard to the ongoing work of the Government in reforming planning guidance and promoting the building of more houses—particularly social houses—it is absolutely right that we set the right framework for a multitude of resilience factors, whether it is around energy and water conservation or resilience to flood. That is why the Government continue to work with our industry stakeholders, particularly the building sector, to make sure we have the skills, the materials and the know-how so that we have resilient properties in the future.

[Baroness Goldie (Con)]

Yesterday, the Minister was answering questions on the reservoir water levels. Linking that to this question and UK resilience, I ask the Minister: what are the current meteorological predictions for rainfall in southern England over the next six months? And what is plan B if the rain does not fall?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

I am tempted to say that we should all do a dance, but that would be facetious. I am afraid that I do not have the exact data that the noble Baroness requested in front of me, so I will be more than happy to write to her in reply. This is important. As we discussed yesterday on the question the noble Baroness referred to about drought and water levels, we take both a long and a short-term approach with the water companies. We make sure they are investing, and we have this record level of £104 billion in investment to provide greater reservoir capacity with nine new reservoirs. They also spend their time, money and attention on fixing the problems of water leakage and pipe leakage now. It is so important that we start at the source to conserve water if, as the noble Baroness says, putting issues such as El Niño to one side, we do not have the water fall that we are expecting.

[Baroness O’Grady of Upper Holloway (Lab)]

My Lords, can my noble friend the Minister reassure me that maximum working temperature is under active consideration? That would be easy for employers and workers to understand, it would drive workplace adaptation and resilience and it would make working temperatures bearable for working people.

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

My noble friend knows that we have an ongoing dialogue about these sorts of regulations with not only her but trade unions and industry representatives. It is important when we think about climate change adaptation that we think not just about the hard built environment and infrastructure but about the way that we as individuals respond to it, whether that is about safe working temperatures or, indeed, the way that we conserve precious resources such as water.

[Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP)]

My Lords, with the Government backtracking on EV targets, heat pumps, warm homes, no oil and drilling—for example, Jackdaw—and now proposing more airport expansion, which climate promises are the Government going to stick to?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

Where do I start, my Lords? In relation to the reference made by the noble Baroness to Jackdaw and so on, I would point out that Rosebank is in a live quasi-judicial regulatory process that is still to be decided on. We are very clear that Jackdaw was not a new licence; we are not breaking any promises there. More widely, I could go through quite a long list, but will spare noble Lords. The measures that we are taking to adapt to climate change include investing £300 million in natural flood management up to 2035, using the farming road map to put long-term climate resilience at the heart of farming, and £30 million for coastal adaptation pilots to help coastal communities adapt. I will stop there, but I hope that the noble Baroness gets the drift.

[Lord Ashcombe (Con)]

My Lords, it is clear to our Benches that land management offers significant scope for both reducing and mitigating the impact of climate change. Re-wetting drained land, decanalising rivers, riparian planting and peatland restoration all improve drought resilience, reduce peak flow events in floods and improve water quality. With the right financial incentives, these also improve our food security by underpinning farm businesses. What are the Government doing to incentivise these actions across all our river catchments?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

I very much share the noble Lord’s ambition in relation to using nature and our farmers to help us make progress on climate adaptation and resilience. I think it is fair to point to the 25-year farming road map that we have produced. That is a long-term vision for the farming sector, to make it not only a profitable sector but one that can lead on climate change resilience, making sure that we have a sustainable and resilient agriculture sector. We are using environmental land management schemes to support ambitious and evidence-based delivery towards resilient landscapes in the land-use framework; for example, committing to assess climate change impacts on the land and building adaptation into ELM schemes.