Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to strengthen the UK’s resilience to climate change, including through the (a) protection and (b) restoration of nature.

The Government is strengthening climate resilience through the third National Adaptation Programme, which addresses key climate risks to habitats, species, water, food production and communities. The Climate Change Committee’s latest assessment will inform the next UK Climate Change Risk Assessment and fourth National Adaptation Programme. Protecting and restoring nature is central to this work, including through Environmental Land Management schemes and wider funding for trees, peatland and other vital habitats and species restoration funding, and stronger protections for sensitive habitats such as upland peat. Most recently, for example, we announced a new £30m Wildlife-Rich Habitat fund for Protected Landscapes and £47m to protect and improve peatland.