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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support research and innovation in adaptation to climate change.

Adaptation to climate change is an integral part of policy across all levels of government (for example, the £3.2bn floods programme and work to build resilience across the health and transport sectors).

The Climate Change Act 2008 has put in place a five-year adaptation policy and research cycle in which the Government first assesses the risks and opportunities facing the UK from climate change based on the latest available evidence, and then produces a policy programme to address those risks. Work on the next risk assessment, to be completed in 2017, is well underway.

In producing the Climate Change Risk Assessment and National Adaptation Programme, Defra officials continually engage with a wide range of interests active in this area, including the Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change, Defra’s Science Advisory Council and Economic Advisory Panel, Research Councils, Innovate UK and the Aldersgate Group.