UK's Climate Adaptation Plan Faces Criticism for Lack of New Funding and Legislation

The five-year programme includes measures to tackle overheating and flooding, but the UK Committee on Climate Change (UKCCC) called on the government to make sure the plan matched the scale of the challenge facing the country.

The Third National Adaptation Plan (NAP) outlines how the government intends to prepare the UK for climate change, covering health, housing, and infrastructure.

Baroness Brown, Chair of the Adaptation Committee of the UKCCC, said that the plan shows that preparing for climate change still needs to be made a more important priority for the country.

"The scale of the climate impacts we are seeing make clear that resilience to climate change should be a much greater national priority," she said.

The UK suffered extreme heat and wildfires last year, which experts believe may have been made worse by climate change.

Dr Chloe Brimicombe, researcher in heatwaves at University Graz, told the BBC that overheating is one of the biggest risks the UK population faces from climate change.

"The reason that it's a massive risk is that it causes significant health issues, especially for vulnerable groups," she said.

The government has announced new proposals in the plan, including constructing new public buildings that are designed to deal with higher temperatures, investing £15m in researching solutions to climate change, and piloting a new climate risk information service.

However, the UKCCC noted that almost all the measures are re-announcements of existing commitments from other plans, such as the Environment Act.

Trudy Harrison, minister for climate adaptation, defended the plan, saying that the government has taken on board the climate change committee's comments.

"There's always more to do.

This is a five-year plan," she said.

The government wants contractors who build new schools and hospitals to implement cooling measures like shaded windows, green roofs, and more open spaces.

However, there is no new legislation or funding for updates to existing homes to make sure they are protected.

Under a scenario where global temperatures rise by 2C, all homes in England and Wales are at risk of overheating, according A new plan has been released by the UK government to tackle climate change, which includes a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050.

The Committee on Climate Change (UKCCC) has welcomed the move but has emphasized that the government needs to provide more resources and funding to help councils take action on their findings.

The UK is highly dependent on imports, mostly from Europe, to fulfill its fruit and vegetable needs, making it vulnerable to extreme weather events in other countries.

The UKCCC had recommended in March that the government require large food companies to assess the climate risks to their supply chains, but the government did not include this in the latest National Adaptation Plan (NAP).

The plan also does not have any targets for improving the strength of the communications sector, despite the UKCCC's request for such targets.