The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has launched a new website to host independent research on UK climate risk as part of its work to prepare an independent Evidence Report to support the UK Government’s third official UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3) due in 2022.

In July the UK Government formally asked the CCC to prepare an independent Evidence Report to support the UK’s third comprehensive assessment of the risks and opportunities from climate change.

The Adaptation Committee of the CCC, will launch a major new independent assessment of the climate risks and opportunities facing the UK in July 2021.

The Climate Change Risk Assessment Evidence Report is a collaborative effort involving over 130 organisations. On the basis of this evidence, the Adaptation Committee will provide its advice to Government to inform the UK Government’s third official UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3) due in 2022. The risks set out in CCRA3 must then be addressed in the UK’s updated adaptation programmes.

As part of ongoing work on the Evidence Report, the CCC has launched a new website: www.ukclimaterisk.org. The new site will provide a digital home for some of the latest research on climate risk, and allow for wider engagement on the key issue of how the changing climate will affect our lives.

Baroness Brown, Chair of the CCC’s Adaptation Committee, said:

“We’re delighted to be able to host a new online hub to showcase the wide range and vast quantity of important work that is currently underway to inform the CCC’s next assessment of UK climate risk. We know people want this information presented in a simple, easy to access and searchable format, and that’s what this new site aims to provide.”

“Over the coming months, we’ll be reviewing the newly collated evidence in detail before giving our advice to Government on the risks and opportunities facing the UK in the years ahead. We look forward to presenting our final views to Government in July next year.”

The first set of outputs from the Climate Change Risk Assessment Evidence Report research programme is now complete. Six independent research projects will help to fill priority gaps in knowledge and reflect the latest science. They are:

• Projections of Future Flood Risk
• Projections of Future Water Availability
• Understanding how behaviours can affect climate risk
• Climate-driven threshold effects in the natural environment
• Interacting risks in infrastructure, the built and natural environments
• A supporting report to provide a consistent set of socioeconomic data for use by the CCRA analytical teams

The www.ukclimaterisk.org site will continue to be updated in the coming months as further research and inputs into the Evidence Report become available.