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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has spent on communicating to the public the future risks, opportunities and impacts of climate change on the well-being and economy of the United Kingdom.

Defra spent £8.3 million in 2013-14 under its core adapting to climate change programme. This included £1.6 million to the Environment Agency’s Climate Ready Support Service (CRSS) to help organisations across England adapt to a changing climate, through targeted engagement with key sectors and their representative bodies. Adaptation is mainstreamed across Government, and other Defra programmes also communicate climate change and impacts to their respective partners and sectors. Defra also participates in a DECC-led cross-Government communications group promoting unified and consistent messaging on climate change.

Defra continues to help build the nation’s resilience to a changing climate primarily through the implementation of the first National Adaptation Programme report published last July, the implementation of our Strategy for the second round of the Adaptation Reporting Power and improving our understanding of climate risk through the second Climate Change Risk Assessment due in 2017.