The Climate Change Committee (CCC)  published (on 20 May 2026) A Well-Adapted UK. This new report sets out a comprehensive package of solutions to address the growing impacts of climate change affecting every aspect of life in the UK. 

The country’s independent climate advisors identify better cooling, flood protection and a more secure water supply as the most critical priorities to protect the UK from the three biggest climate risks – heat, flooding and drought.  

We are already seeing disruption today and without action these risks will escalate. By 2050, 92% of homes are likely to overheat, peak river flows will be up to 45% higher and water supply shortfalls could exceed five billion litres per day. 

The cost of inaction is far greater than the cost of acting now. The Committee’s proposals require investment of around £11 billion a year, split broadly evenly between public and private funding.  

Without adaptation the cost of climate change to public welfare is predicted to rise to between 1 5% of UK GDP by 2050 under a 2°C global warming level, equivalent to £60-£260 billion per year.  

Baroness Brown, Chair of the Adaptation Committee and Honorary Fellow of CIHT,  said:   

Our lives, our landscapes and our homes are under increasing pressure from the changing climate. But we are not powerless. In an increasingly unstable world, being well adapted to climate change is fundamental to securing our food, energy and economic security.   

This report carries a message of hope. The solutions already exist, and proven technologies are available now to help the UK adapt effectively. With the right decisions and actions, we can protect the people and the places we love.  

We can protect patients and residents in overheated hospitals and care homes, children in nurseries and schools, and communities facing repeated flooding. We can support our farmers to maintain our food supplies. We can keep sports pitches usable, high streets open for business, and iconic British music festivals running safely.  

The public want to see change and the government now has an opportunity to step up and protect our way of life. 

CIHT is pleased to see the CCC agrees with the CIHT recommendation that:

There is insufficient assessment of the vulnerabilities and impact points of integrated systems (water, roads, rail) affected by the same weather event. CIHT calls for the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) to be a strategic, cross-modal team to explore and identify these “common impact points” where different networks are most likely to be affected by extreme weather and prioritise resilience planning to avoid multiple failures at such locations. While collaborative working is essential to this approach, it is suggested that a multi-agency overview is necessary to be most effective to minimise the wider effects when different infrastructure systems (roads, rails, water) share a common impact. NISTA’s priorities to support delivery of the 10-year Infrastructure Strategy should be:

• Long term funding for highway maintenance and renewal
• Simple access to funding  
• A clear, simple, regulatory environment  
• Optimised through pro-active programme management
• Incentivised investment to sustain workflow and skills development  

This was suggested in the CIHT response to the 10 year industrial strategy consultation 

The Adaptation Committee’s eight key areas for government action are: 

• Protect people from heat. Invest in cooling – including air conditioning, heat pumps and green shading – across key public services. Government should commit to a national maximum temperature for workplaces to protect workers’ safety and incentivise the deployment of cooling. 
• Manage flood risk. Long‑term investment in measures such as flood defences, effective emergency response, and natural solutions like wetlands are essential. Annual flood risk investment must rise to around £1.6–£2.2 billion each year across the UK to prevent risks increasing further. Government should also manage development in flood-prone areas carefully, avoiding new construction where risks are not adequately reduced.  
• Avoid water shortages. Maintain a strong regulatory focus on drought, scale up sustainable water storage, accelerate leakage reduction and cut demand. All new homes should be water efficient from the outset. 
• Support nature to adapt. Increase public investment in nature restoration and modernise regulation to support ecosystems to survive and thrive under future climate conditions, not those of the past.  
• Keep farming viable. Support farmers with the skills, information and training they need to make climate resilient decisions. Actions include crop diversification and on‑farm water storage to reduce drought risk and build resilience. 
• Understand the risks to food security. Improve the quality, consistency and availability of information on climate risks across the food system. Government should make the Adaptation Reporting Power mandatory and extend it to large food companies, reflecting their role in food security and price stability. They should also consider the potential for large-scale national food stockpiling.  
• Maintain access to insurance. Ensure the right protections are in place and the costs of extreme weather are shared so insurance remains affordable and available. Urgent clarity is needed on the future of flood reinsurance, including the Flood Re scheme, ahead of its current 2039 end date. 
• Adapt infrastructure to avoid cascading disruption. Design and maintain transport, energy and telecommunications systems to operate safely under future climate conditions. Government and regulators must take a more structured approach to managing dependencies between infrastructure systems to avoid widespread disruption. 

Join the webinar - 

A Well-Adapted Transport System: Findings from the CCC’s independent assessment of climate risk and adaptation options - webinar 11 June 2026

Join the webinar - 

A Well-Adapted Transport System: Findings from the CCC’s independent assessment of climate risk and adaptation options - webinar 11 June 2026