The Effects of Climate Change

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Climate Change – in the Senedd at 1:05 pm on 16 June 2021.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 1:05, 16 June 2021

I think you're absolutely right to highlight the fresh evidence again in the report today about the impact of rising sea levels caused directly by man-made global warming. Much of the consequences of that are baked in and we're going to have to deal with it, while we simultaneously try and make sure the problem is not exacerbated. The fact that most of our large settlements are based on along the sea in the north and the south of our country clearly places enormous challenges on us in managing that process. We have put in place a range of measures. We have published our national flood and coastal erosion management strategy, in October 2020, setting out a plan for the next decade, including lessons learned from the recent flooding. We've put £65 million into the budget for flood management this financial year, which is the largest amount ever in a single year, and we have recently completed major projects, including in St Asaph, in Borth, and in Llanberis. The programme for government commits to funding flood protection for more than 45,000 homes and, importantly, nature-based flood management in all major river catchment areas. This is a huge challenge for us all, and I do hope that we can work collaboratively to come up with solutions, both in this Chamber but also, of course, crucially, with local authorities, who are at the sharp end of this.