Severn Trent Costain is strongly backing the warning from the Environment Agency of the need for businesses to prepare for future weather extremes. Managing Director, Wayne Earp said: “The Environment Agency assessment of the likely trend for more extreme weather in future is borne out by the events of 2012, when the country suffered both drought and flooding.
“There are a number of potential effects on businesses, ranging from vulnerability to flooding itself to serious water supply issues as declining river and groundwater levels make existing supplies problematic.”
A global temperature rise of 1.5C would be enough to start the melting of permafrost in Siberia, scientists warned on Thursday. Any widespread thaw in Siberia's permanently frozen ground could have severe consequences for climate change. Permafrost covers about 24% of the land surface of the northern hemisphere, and widespread melting could eventually trigger the release of hundreds of gigatonnes of carbon dioxide and methane, which would have a massive warming effect.
The impact of climate change on local, national and global organisations and economies is growing. A paper published in CIWEM’s Water and Environment Journal this week says local authorities should be proactive in climate change adaptation and mitigation to avoid ever-increasing costs.
Reforms aimed at rescuing the European Union's landmark carbon-cutting mechanism, the emissions trading scheme (ETS), are back on track after attacks from business lobbyists and Conservatives.
Investors and a group of large businesses have urged the EU to revive its flagging emissions trading scheme (ETS), ahead of a key vote in the European parliament next week.