LIVE GOVERNMENT DEBATE: ENVIRONMENT
Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs will be holding a live web chat on Monday, 22 June 2009, at 09:45 BST, on the issue of ‘climate change adaptation’ and how measures might be introduced in combating the threat of rising sea levels.
Join the debate by registering, or by watching the Q & A live:
INPUT/RESPONSE
Sir,
ACCORDING to the latest analysis of the impacts of climate change on the UK, in a recently released report, the risks of flooding is set to increase due to rising sea levels, more rapid erosion and increasingly severe and frequent rainstorms.
Without an increase in investment in flood defences (such as the Thames Barrier) an extra 350,000 properties will face a significant risk of flooding by the year 2035. The Environment Agency confirms that this will bring the total of potentially affected properties under threat to 840,000.
Yet, the continued building of properties on floodplains will increase the likelihood of flooding, particularly within low lying English regions because ground saturation levels are reduced and the water-table is invariably raised.
In combating the threat of rising sea-levels would it not be indicative in attempting to replace antiquated nineteenth century coastal sea-walls with sea-barriers that are fit for purpose in the twenty-first century? The threat of rising sea levels from the melting polar caps is a real and serious one that requires substantial investment along coastlines.
Selected Q & A:
Contributor: … The latest climate change forecasts paint a bleak picture unless bold action is taken now. Why should we think the government has the political will to take such action when it is failing to comply with air pollution laws now (ie those for dangerous airborne particles or PM10) and looks likely to breach those for nitrogen dioxide, a toxic gas, from January 2010 by a very wide margin?
Minister: … It’s not the case that we haven’t taken action. The UK is one of the few countries that will meet its Kyoto commitments, and we’ll do more than we promised then. CO2 emissions are down compared with 20 years ago. On air quality, as you know there have been huge improvements over the last 50 years, but like a lot of other EU countries we have a remaining problem with cars and main roads. But we will deal with it.
Contributor: … As part of you role as Secretary of State, you are responsible for farming – what role do you see farmers as having in tackling climate change?
Minister: … Farmers will need to play their part, just like the rest of us; how they use fertiliser and how they feed their livestock, the way soil is tilled and whether we plant more trees than we cut down, and the kind of fuel used to run tractors. Agriculture is responsible for about 7% of our emissions. On adaptation, farmers will need to store more water when it’s available and use it as efficiently as possible in the summer. Land can also help store floodwaters to help manage river flows – I visited a scheme that does just than in Lincolnshire last Friday.
Contributor: … Why, when they create so much Co2, are we building more coal power stations? surely it would be better to invest this money into clean fuel power stations.
Minister: … We need baseload capacity – to ensure that when we all switch on our kettles there is enough power. The three ways you can provide this are nuclear, gas and coal. The UK now has the toughest conditions in the world applying to new coal plants – all of them will have to demonstrate carbon capture and storage; in other words, taking out the carbon and storing it safely under the ground. Why is it important to develop this technology? Because look at how China and India generate their electricity – mainly by burning coal. We have to develop this technology if we are to get global emissions down.
(MD) Contributor: … “Kyoto”. Would the minister agree that this protocol is effectively redundant with so many countries failing to implement it? Something new is needed in replacing Kyoto, particularly as Barack Obama seems ready to engage the US into dealing with global emissions.
Minister: … It’s clearly insufficient Mark. That’s why we need a new deal at Copenhagen this December.
Contributor: … On the medium emissions scenario sea level is set to rise 36 cm by 2080. Estimates of sea level rise have varied widely it seems certain that coastal flooding is going to be a bigger problem in the future. What effect will this have on off-shore wind and new nuclear power stations proposed for coastal areas?
Minister: … The projections will help us to manage that risk and ensure that any new plants are properly protected. We need that offshore wind power and, in fact, we are now producing more electricity from it than any other country in the world.
Contributor: … Can we be a global frontrunner in fighting climate change issues while going ahead with the third runway at Heathrow?
Minister: … We will always have a choice about where we emit the much smaller amount of carbon that the world can cope with, but if we use that for flying then we will have to make savings elsewhere. It was a difficult decision, but we decided that any new runway would only get just over half the new slots BAA were looking for; the rest would only be released if the Committee on Climate Change decides that doing so would be consistent with our climate targets. In other words, we now have a constrained growth in aviation emissions and a target to get these emissions back by 2050 to where they were in 2005.
Contributor: … Why isn’t population growth considered in global warming? It is a major driver.
Minister: … It is one of the pressures. But we know that the best way to get population growth down in the developing world – compared to what it would otherwise be - is for them to develop economically, plus getting girls into school and better access to contraception. So the question is how developing countries can make these changes while becoming more low carbon.
(MD) Contributor: … The sea defences in the UK are insufficient for the modern day threat. How is the Govt prepared either through activating an early warning system or in the event of a mini tsunami happening on these shores?
Minister: … The best thing people can do is to get on the Environment Agency flood warning system – 08459 881188. It will send you an automatic message when flooding is threatened. As for investment, we have doubled what we spend on flood defences in the last 12 years, as a reult of which more homes are being protected. But sea level rise and more winter rainfall mean that we will have to do more.
Contributor: … How Do We Know that the Atmospheric Build-up of Greenhouse Gases Is Due to Human Activity?
Minister: … We know how much CO2 has been emitted and that about half of that has remained in the atmosphere; the rest has largely been absorbed by the oceans. We know from ice core records going back 400,000 years that the last 100 years has seen a sharp rise in CO2 concentrations which is unprecedented.
(MD) Contributor: … Does the minister accept that the carbon trading emissions scheme, part of an EU Directive, will be sufficient in helping emerging economies to invest in renewable technologies? So much is needing to be done in helping them.
Minister: … Given that we live in a market economy, carbon trading is one of the ways we can change the incentives in favour of low carbon development. But we will need to do other things as well; for example, making it a requirement that new products meet better emission standards – that’s what the agreement we reached with lighting retailers and manufacturers was all about. Mr Edison’s lightbulb was a great invention but we now have lower carbon alternatives that do the job!
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Filed under: Britain, Environment, Westminster, climate change, environment agency, global warming | Tagged: climate change, coastal flooding, downing street, Environment, flooding, floodplains, global warming, hilary benn, notices, rising sea levels, river thames, uk climate projections, webchat
