Storm Ciaran was already the third ‘named storm’ of this autumn and October has been the wettest ever recorded in some parts of the country. So-called ‘one in a hundred year’ weather events are happening more like every two or three years, now. And impacts are being felt across all sectors of the UK, with homes, shops and streets flooded, travel disrupted, power cut off, damage to trees and buildings, food crops destroyed, and so on.
Globally the UN Environment Programme warns that funding to protect communities against heatwaves, floods and droughts is less than a tenth of what is needed and has actually fallen in recent years, even though extreme weather events are getting stronger and more frequent.
But while communities and emergency services work together to protect us all, each new event seems to strike our government as an unexpected surprise. And the current Conservative administration is even pulling back from the already inadequate action we had in place to try to minimise climate change.
We need a government who understand that the Climate Emergency really is an emergency. There will be a General Election in the UK in the next year or so and I’d urge concerned voters to listen closely to what commitments the different political parties make on the subject!
Andrew Myer, Islington Green Party
