Presentation on extreme weather (flooding) events in Wales, and call for better planning around homes

1. Wales... the climate change
challenge in difficult times
Natalie Rees
Senior Project Officer
Climate Change
Commission for Wales

2. Climate Change will…
 Change our natural environment
and our built heritage
 Alter the environment in which
our economy operates
 Increase the importance of water
management to reduce flooding
and ensure supply
Institute of Environmental Sciences, Bangor University

3. IPCC 5th Assessment 2013
Identified that:
• Each of the last three decades has been
successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than
any preceding decade since 1850.
• In the Northern Hemisphere, 1983–2012 was
likely the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400
years.
• It is extremely likely (94% certainty) that human
influence has been the dominant cause of the
observed warming since the mid-20th century.

4. This graph shows how temperatures have
risen and fallen since 1940 - in the red is
warming in the blue is cooling. Credit: ITV
News

5. UKCP09 impacts for Wales
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
hotter, drier summers
Increase in extremely warm days
Milder wetter winters
Reduction in snowfall and frost
Increased frequency of intense rainfall events
Decrease groundwater levels
Increased flooding of low-lying coastal areas

6. Flooding
West Wales
2012

7. Damage to Property
West Wales 2012

8. West Wales flooding:
8-9 June 2012
Met Office, 2013

9. As the countryside comes under more pressure from
developers, we meet the victims of a failed flood system in
Ruthin, North Wales
The flooded streets of St Asaph, near Ruthin, North Wales. 'Everyone blames everyone
else, and it’s the ordinary people in the middle who suffer 'http://vimeo.com/73707934

10. Keith Jones, director of the Welsh Institution of Civil Engineers, called for the
whole question of building on flood plains to be re-examined.
“There are two worrying effects,” he said. “First, the development itself might
flood, but also that the development takes up room where the water would
naturally go, and that causes problems elsewhere.”
He suggested that “expert advice from civil engineers is being ignored by
planning authorities, who were under pressure to release land for building”.

11. One in five or 600,000 people live in flood risk
areas in Wales.
But Week In Week Out discovered the
percentage of schemes being passed now is
the same as before the legislation - 745
schemes have been given the go-ahead in
flood risk areas since 2004.
New flooding insurance deal 'needs to include
new-build homes and small businesses'
The UK Government and insurers' deal has
come in for heavy criticism after it was billed
as protecting all – only for it to emerge that
homes built after 2009 and small firms have
not been included.

12. Climate Change will hit those
already in poverty first
• Increasing food prices
• Increasing energy and water prices and
insecurity of supply
• Increasing fuel prices and shortages of staple
foods
• Increase in illness and accidents
• Travel disruption so difficulty in getting to
work
• School disruption that can affect work

13. To ensure that Wales prepares
successfully for climate change, we
need organisations and communities
to be aware of the impacts of climate
change, and able and willing to do
something about it.

14. We need to be prepared for
climate change
WG Sectoral Adaptation Plans
• Natural Environment
• Business and Tourism
• Health
• Communities
• Infrastructure
Public Sector Guidance “Preparing Wales for a
Changing Climate”
• 5 Part Guidance on how to prepare for climate
change

15. Be prepared….
Don’t let climate
change leave you
stranded!

16. Tackling the reality of climate change in
hard economic times is not going to be
easy. But we should explicitly recognise
that failing to do so would be like
aeroplane pilots ignoring the warning
lights that are flashing on one engine
because they are too busy trying to restart
the other.
Chiemi Hayashi, Head of Research at the World Economic Forum's Risk
Response Network