A REPORT into the national security of the UK has found that landslides, buckling train lines, power outages, and the flooding of major infrastructure sites are all “realistic outcomes” of the climate crisis in the UK.
The latest publication from the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy said that the evidence is “overwhelming” that the impact of climate change on critical national infrastructure is “already significant” and is “set to worsen under all reasonable climate change scenarios”.
Amid warnings that infrastructure failures could happen simultaneously – with power outages potentially causing “widespread economic and societal damage” – the report stated that there was an “alarming lack of Government action” in the area of adaptation to climate change.
“While we are acutely aware of the very difficult fiscal climate, it is high time that the Government learned that prevention is better than cure,” the report concluded.
“If we do not invest time, efforts and resources in climate adaptation—particularly to enhance the resilience of our critical national infrastructure—then there will be an enormous price to pay in future, and that price will not only be paid in money.”
The Scottish Greens said that the report points to the long term consequences of continued inaction from the UK Government on climate change.
The party's environment spokesperson Mark Ruskell MSP said: “The climate crisis is here, on our doorstep, and we have to stop sticking our heads in the sand and pretending otherwise.
“It is the greatest crisis that we face. It is not just an environmental threat it is also a threat to our security.
“The impacts outlined in this report are a glimpse of our future and what the 'new normal' will look like without far reaching climate action.
“We’ve already witnessed tragedies on the rails with land slips, on roads with fallen trees and watched as huge floods have devastated whole communities and at how wildfires have ripped through areas with ferocious intensity.
“We simply do not know what this winter will bring, what follows next summer, or the ones after. But all we have to do is look to places like France, and Spain and Greece to get a sense of what is to come.
“This report is long overdue. It is time for every politician in every corner of the UK to put the climate crisis front and centre of every conversation and policy. Climate change knows no borders, and neither should our response.”
It comes as oil and gas giant Shell reported almost $10 billion in profits in the three months to the end of September.
In a letter to Rishi Sunak, Nicola Sturgeon called on the UK Government to impose an “enhanced” windfall tax on fossil fuel companies.
