Climate change a matter of concern for the security of Britain

Britain is worried. Its national security appears on shaky ground. This is believed to be a fallout of the failure of the government. A parliamentary report cautions that the reasons for such a situation could be attributed extreme weather events caused by climate change. The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy consists of senior MPs and peers. It has urged the government to take control of the major security risks posed by the effects of climate change on critical national infrastructure. These include power, transport, water and communications. The world of today depends heavily on these factors. The report highlight salient issues of the recent past that could be pointers on possible repercussions in future. A few of these are – (i) loss of power to millions in parts of England and Scotland during Storm Arwen in November 2021 due to downing of power lines (ii) loss of lives in Scotland due to derailment of a train in August 2020 and (iii) heatwave of July 2022 when temperatures rose to 104F in the U.K. UK security in danger as govt fails to prepare for extreme weather sparked by climate change - report. The report mentions about finding "overwhelming evidence" that climate change is already having an impact on UK infrastructure and that "no minister has been taking responsibility" for adapting it.

The report follows a series of extreme weather events in recent years. It reveals an "extreme weakness at the centre of government." Moreover, the committee hauls up the ministers of "a severe dereliction of duty" and stresses that "even more severe weather - and consequent impacts - will be prevalent soon." These observations leads the experts to predict that high temperatures are likely to give rise to issues like sagging of electricity cables, softening of roads and increase in the frequency of flooding. These, in turn, might result in frequent failure of railway embankments. Chair of the Joint Committee, Labour MP Dame Margaret Beckett, said Rishi Sunak, the new Prime Minister “must pull all the strands of government together to mitigate against potential disasters… This government must finally recognise that prevention is better than cure and move on from their dangerously reactive approach to risk management."

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