The Committee on Climate Change published its third Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk today.
Their first words are: Climate change has arrived.
They continue: Alarmingly, [this] new evidence shows the gap between the level of risk we face and the level of adaptation underway has widened. Adaptation action has failed to keep pace with the worsening reality of climate risk . . .
In their advice, they identified eight risk areas that require the most urgent attention. Six of them are direct risks to our food supplies, as shown in this annotated version of their Figure 1:
We’ve added in the last category they identified multiple risks to the UK from climate change impacts overseas, not least because we have to import so much food, in particular fresh produce.
As the CCC point out, the biggest challenge we face are interacting risks (see page 73 of their full report).
You’ll notice we’ve added in buffer stocks as a key policy area: on that topic, see our report on how the UK could be better prepared for future food system shocks One Scenario: Buffer contingency food stocks.