Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has conducted research in the last five years on the impact of climate change on the (a) agricultural, (b) manufacturing and (c) construction industries.

We are the first major economy to legislate for net zero emissions and we have cleaned up our power sector, cut emissions faster than any G7 country while growing the economy, championed climate change adaptation and set a strong example for other countries to follow.

(a) Adopting best practice across all agricultural systems has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the farming sector. The Government is engaged with a number of initiatives to better understand and respond to the effects of climate change on agriculture, including research on food supply resilience in relation to climate change and adaptation measures through our work with the Met Office Hadley Centre Food Farming and Natural Environment service (up to £600k over three years). We also plan to develop future publicly funded research and innovation further. This includes investments under the Farming Innovation Programme, a £270 million innovation programme which aims to drive up productivity and enhance environmental sustainability, enabling us to adapt to climate change more effectively, while improving levels of food security.

(b) and (c) Defra has not conducted research in the last five years on the impact of climate change on the manufacturing or construction industries.

The Office for National Statistics’ “Business insights and impact on the UK economy” survey, Wave 82, published on 18 May 2023 provides manufacturing and construction sector views on the impact of climate change on their business (https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/output/datasets/businessinsightsandimpactontheukeconomy) and asks the following questions:

• Which of the following actions, if any, has your business taken to protect the environment?
• Which of the following actions, if any, have you taken to reduce your business's carbon emissions?
• Is your business concerned about the impact climate change may have on the business?

In Wave 59, published on 30 June 2022, the following question, which is now discontinued, was asked:

• Have any of the following been used to assess the impact of climate change on your business's ability to operate?