Recommendation 1

The evidence is overwhelming that the effects of climate change on our critical national infrastructure are already significant, and are set to worsen substantially under all reasonable climate change scenarios. Buckling train lines, flooding of major infrastructure sites, landslides and power outages are all realistic outcomes. They may also happen simultaneously, causing multiple cascading effects across different infrastructure sectors. The scale of the challenge facing Government, operators and regulators is clear: there is an urgent need to adapt our infrastructure to the potentially rapid effects of climate change.