Aberystwyth University is set to sign agreements with Seoul National University to share miscanthus germplasm, based on principles of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity to help boost bioenergy production and combat climate change.

East Asian indigenous genetic resources of miscanthus are useful for improving existing miscanthus bioenergy crops elsewhere in the world. Miscanthus may be used to create higher energy yields on lower grade lands which are less suitable for food production.

European energy policy makers recognise the importance of bioenergy crops in the future mix of renewables, and national policies are being developed to encourage their commercial deployment.

A major research programme led by Ricardo-AEA for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will help to inform the policies described in a UK government report on adapting to the effects of climate change, which was laid before parliament yesterday

The first report on the National Adaptation Programme (NAP) sets out what government, businesses, communities and civil society are doing to prepare for and adapt to climate change. The Ricardo-AEA research programme, called PREPARE, produced five significant studies published by Defra yesterday which will help government to design the types of policies and services described in the NAP. Ricardo-AEA delivered the PREPARE research programme in partnership with Ipsos MORI, Alexander Ballard Ltd, the University of Leeds and a panel of experts in climate change adaptation.

Governments around the world have increasingly been using economic stagnation as an excuse for climate inaction. But a letter published today in Nature Climate Change by Dr Chris Hope, Reader in Policy Modelling, Cambridge Judge Business School and Mat Hope, School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies, University of Bristol, suggests this neglect is unwise.

The research estimates the mean damage caused by emitting an additional tonne of carbon dioxide today is $107 per tonne if economic growth in the rich world is around 2% per year. But if rich economies continue to stagnate the mean damage rises to $138 per tonne.

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.”