Barry Gardiner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has for public communications on the need to prepare for the effects of climate change.

Rory Stewart

The effects of climate change continue to be taken into account within policy making across Defra and all levels of Government and within the broad range of related communications activities. Targeted communications closely tied to specific climate threats help those affected to understand potential impacts and the practical actions that they can take to increase their resilience and adapt. For instance, the Environment Agency have been ‘geo-targeting’ people in specific high flood risk locations via Facebook and other services to promote the benefits of and sign up to the free flood warning service.

Government will be publishing the second UK Climate Change Risk Assessment in 2017 to be followed by the second National Adaptation Programme report and will, as part of that process, consider the need for further public communications on the effects of climate change in the UK.