UK PM says climate change a serious threat

Reasserted his commitment to tackling climate risks, Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has insisting his “view has not changed” since he took office and he still regards climate change as one of the greatest threats facing humanity.

Speaking as part of his first press conference in more than six months, the Prime Minister repeatedly defended the government’s response to the on-going flood crisis affecting the south of England.

Bloomberg newsagency reports that at the same time Mr Cameron insisted that “money was no object” when it came to supporting the flood relief effort.

However, he warned that with more bad weather forecast for the next few days the situation could “get worse before it gets better”.

He also confirmed that he would cancel a planned trip to the Middle East next week to help co-ordinate the response effort.

Cameron hinted that the floods that have inundated thousands of homes in Somerset, Cornwall, and the Thames Valley would result in a major review of the UK’s flooding policies.

He also indicated that grants would be made available to homeowners and businesses to help them build flood defences and that Ministers would look at how to ensure businesses can access insurance against flooding.

Bloomberg reports the Environment Agency had 16 severe flood warnings in place, which signify danger to life,14 of them along the River Thames and two in Somerset, according to its website.

Mr Cameron praised the work done by the Environment Agency, following criticism by some politicians, including Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

He also said that $18 million would be made available to help farmers recover from the floods, that a tax deferral system would aim to help businesses that had been impacted.

Mr Cameron said suggested that the government would look at how the “pendulum swung too far away from dredging”, despite the fact a host of independent experts have lined up this week to argue that dredging would have had a minimal impact on flood levels.

A succession of storms have deluged the country with record rains and battered the coasts with gales and tidal surges.

About 5800 properties have flooded since the beginning of December, the Environment Agency said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

Mr Cameron argued that while he thought there was a link between the recent extreme weather and climate change there was a case for investing in climate resilience even if you dispute the scientific consensus on the causes of climate change.

“Whether you believe in climate change or not we are experiencing some very severe weather and it makes sense to mitigate and to act”, he said, stressing that there was a need to make the economy, and in particular transport infrastructure, more resilient to extreme weather.

He added that he was “proud” to lead a government that prioritised action on climate change.

Rains across the UK have been swelled by what the Met Office said was a persistent track of storms related to an unusually strong North Atlantic jet stream that typically flows farther north.

Total rainfall for December and January across southeast and central southern England was 372.2 millimetres, the wettest such period since detailed data was first published in 1910, according to the Met Office.

The January total for the region was the highest in data stretching to 1766, the office said.