Surface water guy backs Baroness Brown

Scotland’s premier surface water expert Frank O’Donnell has welcomed the climate change risk assessment report.

Mr O’Donnell said: “The Committee on Climate Change’s risk assessment report has implications for new build projects and adaptations alike.

“We need to act now as our drainage infrastructure is literally bursting at the seams. I welcome Baroness Brown’s comments and her call to mainstream adaptations into policies.”

Speaking to the Climate Change Risk Assessment Report Chair of CCC’s adaptation sub-committee Baroness Brown warned of more frequent extreme weather like the flooding Germany experienced just last year.

She told the BBC’s PM programme we should be thinking about it now while adaptations and builds are taking place not in 2050 when costs of adaptions will be much higher, that the return on adaptation investment is very strong – up to a factor of 10 times.

Baroness Brown insisted that preparing for the future, mainstreaming adaptations into policies, adaptations need to be thought about when adapting we need to be thinking about the future climate

She cited surface water as an immediate issue she said: “Surface water flooding is something we have not done enough about. We are still developing in areas where we know surface water is going to be an increasing problem.”

The full report is available here – https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/independent-assessment-of-uk-climate-risk/