Climate Change Adaption Report
Climate change is no longer a future threat. At Anglian Water, we are feeling the effects today. In recent years, we have witnessed more flooding, increased risk of drought and around the world, rising temperatures and sea levels. Since our last Climate Change Adaptation Report (2020) we have experienced extreme weather events; drought in 2022 with the highest temperatures ever recorded in the UK, followed by the unprecedented wet winter and succession of storms in 2023/24. As a result, our climate risk landscape is changing.
We have long known about the impact of climate change. When we published our Strategic Direction Statement in 2007, we set out what we believed to be our main challenges to 2035, the most significant being climate change and growth. We have worked hard to build resilience in our region, with a particular focus on water resources, being the driest region in the UK with high agricultural productivity.
Furthermore, the East of England has experienced significant change over the past few decades; more customers living here, more products that cause blockages going into our sewers, less green space to absorb rainfall.
Managing the impacts of our changing climate, alongside our region’s vision for growth and greater environmental ambition is a complex challenge. We have led and supported a breadth of projects to prepare for our changing climate, and we are reaping the benefits of what we have learnt. However, we maintain the view that adaptation is a continual and long journey and new ways of working, innovation and collaboration will be key as new risks emerge. Our customers also share this view, supporting our plans for the next five years and into the future.
This is the fourth submission we have made to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) under the Adaptation Reporting Power of the UK Climate Change Act (2008). Its purpose is to outline progress we have made in adapting to our climate change risks since 2020, contribute to Government’s understanding of our level of preparedness to climate change and inform other ongoing work on climate adaptation, including the UK’s national Climate Change Risk Assessment and National Adaptation Programme.
