Twenty-eighth Report Adapting Institutions to Climate Change Cm ...

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There is no obvious or easy answer to the question of how and whether the state should
redistribute the costs of climate change. The far-reaching political nature of this question, which
implies a range of questions about the social and physical world in which we wish to live, should
be recognised. In the absence so far of public and political debate on the subject, it would be
premature to make a recommendation on the institutional solution to the uneven distribution of
climate change impacts. However, there is a pressing need for such a debate.
As the Government has noted (3.67 concerning the Flood and Water Management Bill), there is
also a need for debate about the circumstances in which local funding to maintain or improve
defences is a fair and appropriate response. This may be a solution in some cases, serving at the
least to ‘buy time’ for consideration of other options. It assumes, however, that the defences are
being withdrawn for economic reasons only, and that locally-funded defences would not simply
send the water or the wave energy elsewhere – in which case wealthy communities could adversely
affect poorer ones.
Governments have a responsibility to address the distributional aspect of climate change, including
less tangible losses, in an explicit, open and collaborative way. The Commission recommends
that governments should initiate and sustain an informed political and public debate on
the distribution of the costs of the impacts of climate change and of adaptation. This
should cover the consequences of flooding and coastal erosion, the impact on communities
and questions of compensation, and the costs of maintaining or improving defences.
Governments should make policy decisions on the basis of this informed political and
public debate.
Equity is not just about the distribution of costs, but also about the ways in which decisions are
made about those issues. A key element of good decision making is public engagement, to which
we turn next.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
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We have stressed that the effects of climate change are felt locally. Even in a country as relatively
small as the UK, for some the manifestations of climate change are already real while for others
they are still a remote risk. Significant changes to localities will directly affect and shape the
ways in which individuals will be able to interact with, and benefit from, their natural and social
environments in the future. As one expert has said: “the implications of a changing physical
environment touch the core of how individuals and cultures may define themselves and their
interactions with the world around them.” 11 How can society ensure that the fundamental impacts
of climate change are fully debated and appropriate opportunity provided for individuals and
communities to consider the implications, the decision dilemmas that arise and the need to weigh
up potentially differing outcomes?
We believe that there is a need for better public access to, and debate about, issues raised by
climate change projections, particularly those produced by UKCP09. If these scenarios are to
inform institutional and policy responses, it is essential that all stakeholders – including members
of the public – can understand them. As we discussed in Chapter 3, public responses will be
dependent on people understanding what climate change means for them and their families, in
their own context. This is an essential component of both the framing and learning processes.
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Chapter 5