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Natural environment
Human activity places a range of pressures on the natural environment. These may be exacerbated and/or altered by climate change and may also heighten many of its impacts. In turn, these impacts could affect the way humans are able to use the environment, for example to grow crops or obtain high-quality drinking water. The Natural Environment is also crucial to our ability to adapt, reducing flood risk, cooling cities and storing water.
The Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) considers the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to the natural environment.
Risks
- Low water levels and reduced river flows leading to increased concentration of pollutants from agriculture, sewage and air pollution damaging freshwater habitats and other ecosystem services.
- Soil moisture deficits and erosion impacting biodiversity and soil carbon and increasing risk of wildfires.
- Increased prevalence of invasive non-native species, pests and pathogens impacting on animal, plant and human health provisioning services (such as fisheries) and biodiversity.
- Warmer rivers, lakes and seas impacting on biodiversity and the productivity and functioning of aquatic and marine ecosystems.
- Flooding and coastal erosion impacting on key coastal habitats and other ecosystem services (including the extent of beaches and nature sites for tourism).
- Loss of climate space with species unable to track climate change especially resulting from habitat fragmentation (due to cumulative impact of risks and policy decisions taken in other sectors).
- Possibility of algal blooms, ocean acidification and species range shifts impacting on marine habitats, species and ecosystem services.
- Changes in timing of seasonal events and migration patterns can result in mismatches between species such as predator- prey/host relationships.
Opportunities
- Higher temperatures leading to increase in some provisioning services for example, agriculture and forestry (assuming that water availability is not a constraint).
- Increased habitat range for some generalist species e.g. warm water fish or southerly insects and plants.
The Environment Agency, Natural England, the Forestry Commission and some National Parks voluntarily prepared Adaptation Reports setting out how climate risks impact on their organisational objectives and the steps they are taking to adapt to them.
In developing the National Adaptation Programme we want to work collaboratively with wider stakeholders to consider our collective response to these risks and opportunities.
Questions
- Do you feel that your organisation understands how future climate and weather risks may (or may not) affect its performance? Is this a problem?
- In your organisation, what do you feel is the most urgent action needed to adapt to the risks identified in the CCRA? You can also include international climate impacts feeding through to the UK where you think these relevant.
- If you think that your organisation needs to do more to adapt, what is stopping you? To what extent do you think your organisation/sector can do what is needed without Government intervention?
- Do you have examples of innovative ways of assessing your resilience or adapting to our current and future climate, which you would be happy for us to share with similar organisations and sectors?
- Is your organisation aware of any potential opportunities presented by climate change? What is your organisation doing to make the most of any opportunities? Please also cover any opportunities arising from international climate impacts.
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1. yes
2. drive for sustainable intensifcation not taking into account that this may undermine that we can not adapt easily due to this. Need to join up between sectors in some responces.
3. I think we are doing a lot but always more that can be done.
4. Yes very happy to work with others – see web link – BAP habitat vulnerbility GIS tool – also embedding work into our delivery.
5. Locking in carbon into natural habitats – developing stewardship to deliver more of this agenda.
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1. We do understand – and it is a problem!
2. Much urgent action needed! Reduce existing threats to nature; landscape scale projects involving cross-sectoral and multi-interest partnerships; research and monitoring
3. Organisations will act with self-interest – essential to find ways to address issues of common goods including nature, ecosystem services etc. A consistent external, supporting framework is important to achieve this, involving policy, safeguards, regulation etc and ensuring societal adaptation requirements are integral to all relevant statutory funding
4. we have an adaptation assessment tool and are gaining wide experience of practical land management responses – keen to work with others
5. A few species will benefit, some will arrive to UK, some increasingly as ‘refugees’. Adaptation has potential to change/develop in new partnerships towards more integrated use. Increased focus on ecosystem services in adaptation in many sectors.
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The CCRA notes that ‘integrated responses across sectors are required to enhance resilience and adaptive capacity of ecosystem services’ – and therefore of the biodiversity, species and habitats that underpin ES. A biodiversity group with cross sectoral ambitions seems a good start towards achieving this. Other views on the best ways to action this CCRA key point – both in the NAP and beyond?
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Olly – thanks for the suggestion, we couldn’t agree more! Following similar requests we plan to convene just such a group and hope it’s a catalyst for action. We’d certainly welcome RSPB involvement. We’re also very open to offers to from others to actively contribute to the group and help lead delivery through their own organisations.
But as you suggest, there may be other ideas on how to deliver the integrated responses so interested in hearing others views.
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REFRESH is an EU FP7 project that is concerned with adaptive strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on European freshwater ecosystems. One of the central objectives of the project is to develop a ‘tool-kit’ for managers to identify cost effective adaptation management strategies that account for predicted climate change impacts on freshwater ecosystems. We have two case study catchments in the UK, the Thames and the Dee. We are planning to hold a one day ‘Stakeholder Conference’ in London sometime next year to bring together members of the freshwater community, representing a wide spectrum of interests – scientists, conservation and regulatory agencies, NGOs and water companies to assess progress with understanding the impacts of climate change on freshwaters and, in particular, the implications for adaptation, mitigation and restoration strategies.
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You may find the adaptation approaches used in Australia worth considering.
See Booth, T.H. (2012) Biodiversity and Climate Change Adaptation in Australia. Advances in Climate Change Research, 3(1) 12-21. Free copies downloadable from http://www.climatechange.cn
Regards, Trevor
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Hardly any mention of effects on fish. The NW has the majority of major salmon rivers in England and Wales and everything this means for tourism economy.
Likewise no mention of the irrelevancy of low head hydropower in climate change leaving our rivers littered with hydro detritus
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