Adapting the UK to climate change

The RSC has submitted a response to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution study on 'Adapting the UK to climate change'

The main points of the response are:

• Floods and droughts are likely to happen more often and for longer period of time. This will have an effect on the water supplies. Contaminants can be flushed into the water through floods and concentrated in water sources through droughts. Key future challenges for suppliers of water include water scarcity, the need to treat poorer quality water and energy usage.

• Changes in climate change might result in the invasion of new insects, which has implications for public health and agriculture because of the diseases they can carry (e.g. malaria, and blue tongue).

• Water borne diseases have historically had the greatest impact upon human health and continue to contribute to millions of deaths globally per year. With an increased risk of flooding, the risk of diseases also rises.

  A lot of measures to mitigate climate change take time to implement. Therefore it is essential to start now.

• We need more accurate models of what will happen in the future on a local scale. Adaptation measures that are required in the southeast of the UK, for example, might not be appropriate for changes in the northwest. The better our understanding of the effects of climate change are the better we can adapt to those changes.