El Niño: Impact Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

El Niño: Impact

Baroness Neville-Rolfe Excerpts
Tuesday 19th May 2026

(2 months, 1 week ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent Portrait Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)
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The noble Baroness raises an important point that I was not aware of. I will speak to officials and come back to her.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe Portrait Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)
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My Lords, the weather is, of course, borderless. What contingent planning have His Majesty’s Government undertaken to mitigate the combined impact of potential shortages of essential supplies—including fertiliser, which is so important to British farmers—that might arise from the conflict in the Gulf and from a possible super El Niño event in 2026?

Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent Portrait Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)
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The noble Baroness is right that each crisis moment is different and that we need to ensure that we have strong foundations, which I believe we do as a country in our resilience planning. COBRA is a very effective co-ordinating tool to make sure that we know that we are on top of all those challenges and that we can make assessments as and when required in this space.