http://www.rcep.org.uk/reports/28-adapt ... tation.htm
Sir John Lawton, Chair of the Commission, wrote: “The scale of the challenge of living with a changing climate has not been
sufficiently widely recognised. The Government and the Devolved
Administrations have put in place programmes to begin to develop
adaptation responses - which is very welcome. But more needs to be
done. Some current policies and programmes will not be sustainable in a
world where the weather is more extreme.”
“Preparing for climate change is particularly difficult, because while there
is no doubt that weather patterns are changing and will change further,
there is great uncertainty about precisely how far and how fast those
changes will be and the local effects. It is a real challenge for institutions
to understand how they should prepare, made more difficult by complex
governance structures.”
“Our report aims to help organisations face these challenges. We have
recommended a new duty on public bodies and an adaptation test to be
applied to new policies and programmes, and want to ensure we have the
skills and knowledge to prepare.”