Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of (a) the economy-wide investment needs for adapting the UK to climate change and (b) the current funding gap.

The Government is taking action to respond to climate risks and their impacts on our economy and way of life. The Third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) was published in July 2023. It set out policies and actions to respond to the 61 climate risks and opportunities identified in the Third Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3).

There is significant public investment underpinning the policies and actions in NAP3, with the Government having committed a record-breaking £5.2 billion investment in flood and coastal schemes in England between 2021 and 2027, helping to better protect hundreds of thousands of properties and avoid £32 billion of wider economic damages. However, adaptation actions cannot be funded through public spending alone, and additional investment from the private sector will therefore be required to support adaptation action over the coming decades. The Government has committed to support the flow of this private finance into adaptation through the 2023 Green Finance Strategy.