Train lines risk closure while nine in 10 prisons overheat, first government climate reports reveal
منتشرشده: · بهروزرسانی: · ایران
NINE in 10 prisons are at risk of flooding and train lines face closure due to climate change, Britain’s public spending watchdog warned today.
NINE in 10 prisons are at risk of flooding and train lines face closure due to climate change, Britain’s public spending watchdog warned today.
The National Audit Office (NAO) found a “mixed picture” of Britain’s resilience after reviewing the first fully mandated annual disclosure climate-related reporting across government.
NAO head Gareth Davies said: “Parliament needs clear information on the resilience of infrastructure, service provision and finances to climate change, and on how these risks are being managed.
“Although public bodies are still learning how best to report their most pressing climate risks, the requirement on all large central government bodies to make such disclosures from 2025-26 is an important first step.
“We expect this reporting to become more useful over time.”
The NAO’s review disclosures from 31 public bodies found that 89 per cent of prisons were at high risk of flooding and 71 per cent at high risk of overheating.
Rising financial losses for train companies due to climate change have the “potential for some routes to become financially unviable or inoperable later this century in the worst-case scenario,” it added.
The NAO warned that only a few bodies explained fully what climate-related risks could mean for their services, future plans and finances and that most disclosures did not “include enough targets or measures for readers to judge how effectively bodies were managing climate-related risks.”
Train drivers’ union Aslef general secretary Dave Calfe said: “We need investment in infrastructure to ensure that Britain’s railways — the vital arteries of the British economy — are sustainable in this era of climate change.”
TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust said: “This summer saw record temperatures and two passenger train derailments within 24 hours of each other, plus a recent freight train derailment.
“What we are witnessing is the impact of climate change on the railways here and now.
“This is causing the network huge challenges, and TSSA is calling for emergency funding for Network Rail to ensure our railways are safe, reliable and efficient in the face of hotter summers and much wetter winters. ”
PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “The government must negotiate with unions on environmental planning and delivery. PCS has long made the case for workers to be included in this process.”
The TUC and individual trade unions including Unison, Unite, and the GMB are actively campaigning for stronger legal protections against extreme heat and overheating in the workplace.
While Green MP Adrian Ramsay said: “I warned over the summer about the unique risks overheating poses in hospitals, prisons and schools, and today’s report from the public spending watchdog confirms that the government is not prepared. In fact, public bodies are still struggling to explain what climate risks mean for the services people rely on. Without a central body focussing on climate resilience, as I’ve called for, we keep drifting from one dangerously hot summer to the next.”
Environmental Audit Committee chair Toby Perkins MP said that he was “alarmed to read that only a third of the central government bodies that identified climate change as a material issue assessed its impact on their work.”
“This simply isn’t good enough; the government must rapidly scale up efforts to assess and disclose climate-related risks,” he said.
“Without action, climate risks will undermine not only our natural and economic resources but also vital public services on which the public depend.”
Unison national policy officer Michelle Singleton said: “Climate change is having a serious impact on public services, communities and the workers who keep them running.
“For so many public services to remain unprepared for the risks ahead is a huge concern. Climate change mustn’t be treated as a distant threat.
“The government must do more to make sure all essential services are resilient.”