Plus ca change

The Government response to this story about the Climate Change Committee warning that its response to climate change is wholly inadequate is a classic illustration of how it trivialises everything, repeating tired slogans about a plan for change while changing very little.

Here's the scale of the problem:

Lady Brown, the chair of the adaptation subgroup of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), the statutory adviser to government, said: “We are seeing no change in activity from the new government, despite the fact that … it’s clear to the public that the current approach just isn’t working. The country is at risk, people are at risk, and there is not enough being done.”

Here's the response: 

As part of our plan for change we are investing a record £2.65bn to repair and build flood defences, protecting tens of thousands of homes and businesses and helping local communities become more resilient to the effects of climate change such as overheating and drought.

Last year's Conservative manifesto said:

In 2020, we announced a doubling of capital funding into flood defences in England to a record £5.6 billion over 2021-2027. We will maintain this record flooding funding to continue to protect homes, farms and businesses.

This is £933m a year but the Tories spent £1.063bn in 2021-22. The Government spokesperson forgot to tell you that Labour's £2.65bn is over two years. Taking inflation into account, including what half  of it would be worth in 2026-27, any short-term increase on 2021-22 is marginal.

In February, environment secretary Steve Reed was quoted as saying:

This Government inherited flood assets in their poorest condition on record, as years of underinvestment and damaging storms left 3,000 of the Environment Agency’s 38,000 high-consequence assets at below the required condition.

So Labour's "plan for change" involves doing roughly the same as what led to this.