§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what research his Department is funding into the potential severity of 100 year climatic events due to global warming; and if the Environment Agency will take this into account in commenting on planning applications. [109012]
§ Mr. MeacherMy Department supports a £7.8 million programme on climate prediction at the Hadley Centre, which is based at the Met Office. Part of this research programme considers how sea level is projected to rise as a result of climate change. Extreme climate events are characterised by their "return period", i.e. the 100-year water level is the water level which occurs once in every 100 years. The Hadley Centre projections have been used by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory to calculate how the return period for the current 100-year water level might change by the 2050s at a number of UK ports. The projections are currently very uncertain because of104W incomplete understanding of the climate system, and do not allow for any changes in storminess which may result from climate change.
The projections indicate that in England and Wales, a current high tide which would be expected to occur once in every 100 years will occur more frequently. This would be exacerbated if storminess were also to increase as a result of climate change.
The Environment Agency considers new research (some of which it is actively involved in) as it emerges and uses it to inform procedures for responding to planning applications.