The Department for Transport (DfT) has released the summary of responses to its climate change adaption policy for the transport sector.
A total of 125 responses were received to the consultation, with representatives from across the road, rail, maritime and aviation sectors, as well as from 11 individuals.
The draft strategy these groups were responding to laid out a number of proposals which aimed to foster cross-sector collaboration, prioritise climate change adaptation in the transport sector, and embed climate adaptation into the sector to do environmental responsibility “business as usual” within UK transport.
There was broad support for the aims laid out in the document, with between 59% and 70% of respondents saying that they believed the actions laid out in the document would be effective, depending upon the particular focus they were responding to. Around 59% were in support of suggested polices related to understanding the interdependencies between departments, with 73% in support of enabling departments to work together more effectively to enable climate mitigation measures in the transport sector.
Notably, 75% of respondents said they were in support of a review of the remit of transport regulators in order to support more efficient climate change adaptation, with 70% in favour of standardising the approach that regulatory agencies take when assessing the success of climate resilience measures. Furthermore, 59% were in favour of providing better tools to support the economic development needed to bolster the UK transport network against climate change, while 58% said that a better evidence base should be built to understand the economic risks of climate damage to UK transport.
However, the DfT notes that a number of additional requests were made by many respondents to the document, including more funding to support adaptation measures, funding for training and access to skilled resourcing, more guidance on the assessment of climate risk, a standardised approach to reporting across government, and more tools and data to enable decision making.
The report has suggested a number of new measures to help the UK weather the impacts of climate change on the transport sector in the coming years, which it notes are becoming an increasing drain on the UK economy as extreme weather events increase in frequency.
In 2015, the impacts of Storm Desmond required £120 million of repair work to be done to fix damage to 350km of the road network and 720 bridges, while 2013-2104 saw winter floods cause £180 million of damage to UK motorways.
Suggested measures to be undertaken by the end of this year include incentivising adaptation measures through funding agreements, reviewing approaches to valuing the costs of climate risks to transport systems and assets, exploring how and where funding for R&D, trials and adaptation measures could be effective, and enhancing climate risk assessment procedures.
By 2027, the DfT is aiming to collate the data that transport stakeholders capture on weather and climate-related disruption and costs and aiming to develop indicators to measure adaptation outcomes by 2028.
In his ministerial forward to the consultation, parliamentary under secretary of state for the DfT, Anthony Browne, said: “There is not a one-size-fits-all approach on how to adapt and it is a challenge which is being grappled with all over the world. A transport network that is fit for our changing climate will only be possible if the transport sector changes its perspective on climate risks.”
