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15 Nov 2005 : Column 1058W—continued
Flooding/Flood Defences
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the cost of flooding to the economy was in 2004–05; and how this is predicted to change in future years. [27880]
Mr. Morley: Defra has made no estimate of the cost of actual damage due to flooding in 2004–05. Our latest National Assessment of Defence Needs and Costs study estimated average annual damages from flooding at some £1 billion per year. However it must be emphasised that this is an expected average over the very long term derived by combining the potential damages from a wide range of possible events from the rare and extreme to the very frequent with their probabilities to provide an estimate of the annual expected average. It is not a useful estimate for any specific year.
Climate change has the potential to increase probability of flooding due to increases in sea level and potential changes in the frequency, duration and intensity of storms. Increased economic wealth will also tend to increase the value of losses. In 2004 the Foresight 'Future Flooding' report, sponsored by the Office of Science and Technology, estimated that, taking these and other factors into account, annual average flood damages could increase by between two and 20 times by the end of the century. The actual increases will be highly dependent on actual patterns of growth, development and future flood management activity.
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research the Department and its related agencies has commissioned on flood defence policy since 1997; and how much this research has cost. [25459]
Mr. Morley: The Department and the Environment Agency have a joint user-oriented thematic programme of research and development addressing the management of risks from flooding and coastal erosion.
This joint R&D programme covers all aspects of flood and coastal erosion risk management, from design, planning, monitoring and appraisal, through to research to support development of flood and coastal policy and guidance.
Defra and the Environment Agency have commissioned around 200 projects with a range of academic and non-academic establishments since 1997. The details of most projects, including all recent technical reports, are available from http://www.defra.gov.uk/environ/fcd/research/RandDProiects.htm
Approximately £26 million was spent on this research between 1997–98 and 2004–05. Defra has provided approximately two thirds of the funding in each year.
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Foot and Mouth
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the recent foot and mouth emergency exercise held in Truro. [28031]
Mr. Bradshaw: The exercise in Truro was routine, and one in an on-going programme of exercises held every year by the State Veterinary Service.
Some of our major stakeholders attended the exercise as observers and we received very positive and constructive feedback from them. Those stakeholders included representatives from the National Farmers' Union, the Police, and Cornwall County Council Trading Standards and Emergency Planning Department.
FTSE 350 (Environmental Performance)
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will place in the Library the latest list of FTSE 350 companies that report on their environmental performance. [27893]
Mr. Morley: The most up to date information of which I am aware was published in the 2004 'Directions' report by Salterbaxter; I shall have a copy placed in the Library. 145 of the FTSE250 report to some extent on their environmental performance.
The new Operating and Financial Review and the EU Accounts Modernisation Directive are designed to improve company reporting, and require companies to consider their environmental impacts. In addition, my Department will shortly be publishing a suite of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which will help companies manage and communicate the links between environmental and financial performance.
Greenhouse Gases
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether it is the Government's policy to seek international agreement for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol containing binding greenhouse gas reduction targets. [27912]
Mr. Morley: As yet, there have been no formal inter-governmental discussions of the design of a future commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol. The UK will chair the EU at the UN climate change conference at the end of this year at which the first formal discussion will take place when the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol meet for the first time.
The EU is also looking forward to using this discussion to initiate a process among all parties to explore how to implement better the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Following this conference, next year we plan to start discussions to prepare the UK position on further action.
The UK Government and the EU want to build on the Kyoto Protocol and its key elements such as targets and timetables, monitoring and reporting, compliance and the flexibility mechanisms for the period after 2012. At the March meeting of the European Council of Ministers, the European Heads of Government stated that the EU looks forward to exploring with other
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parties strategies for achieving necessary emission reductions and believes that in this context, reduction pathways for the group of developed countries in the order of 15 to 30 per cent. by 2020, compared to the baseline envisaged in the Kyoto Protocol and in the spirit of the conclusions of the Environment Council should be considered.
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what research the Government have commissioned into the viability of an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that does not contain binding targets. [27913]
Mr. Morley: Currently no such research has been commissioned by this Government. As yet, there have been no formal intergovernmental discussions of the design of a future commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol. The UK will chair the EU at the UN climate change conference at the end of this year at which the first formal discussion will take place when the parties of the Kyoto Protocol meet for the first time.
The EU is also looking forward to using this discussion to initiate a process among all parties to explore how to implement better the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Following this conference, next year we plan to start discussions to prepare the UK position on further action.
The UK Government and the EU want to build on the Kyoto Protocol and its key elements such as targets and timetables, monitoring and reporting, compliance and the flexibility mechanisms for the period after 2012. At the March meeting of the European Council of Ministers, the European Heads of Government stated that the EU looks forward to exploring with other parties strategies for achieving necessary emission reductions and believes that in this context, reduction pathways for the group of developed countries in the order of 15 to 30 per cent. by 2020, compared to the baseline envisaged in the Kyoto Protocol and in the spirit of the conclusions of the Environment Council should be considered.
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what scientific advice the Government have received on the level of greenhouse gas reductions required by 2050 to avoid unacceptable risk of extreme climate change. [27914]
Mr. Morley: The ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that avoids dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system". As yet there is no consensus on what constitutes this level. It is, however, accepted that dangerous levels will be different for different impact sectors and for different regions.
The Environment Council stated in 1996 that adaptation to a global temperature rise of 2C would be possible, but that the impacts associated with a temperature rise greater than 2°C are likely to be severe enough to be classified as 'dangerous'. A 2°C temperature rise was the starting point for the analysis carried out in preparation for the Energy White Paper, underpinning the conclusion by the Royal Commission
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on Environmental Pollution Secretariat that we should put the UK on a path to reducing carbon emissions by 60 per cent. by 2050.
Our scientific understanding of the links between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration, the scale of emissions reductions required and the risk of extreme climate change is rapidly developing, but still uncertain. The issue of stabilisation levels of atmospheric greenhouse concentrations was addressed at the Defra-funded international science conference, Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, held in Exeter in February this year. The report of the steering committee concluded that:
Compared with the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's] IPCC's Third Assessment Report (TAR) there is greater clarity and reduced uncertainty about the impacts of climate change across a wide range of systems, sectors and societies. In many cases the risks are more serious than previously thought".
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