Government unveils fresh funding for climate adaptation

The government is to pump an additional £450,000 into regional efforts to adapt to the effects of climate change this year, it was announced today.

Speaking at a Guardian conference on planning for climate adaptation, Climate Change Minister Joan Ruddock said that Regional Climate Change Partnerships would be able to apply to access the extra funding, adding that the £450,000 would be followed by a further additional funding for local adaptation projects over the next two years.

She said that while the government was committed to tackling climate change by reducing carbon emissions, even if we stopped all emissions of greenhouse gases tomorrow we would still be locked into 30 to 40 years of climate change and as such adaptation measures are required. "The effect of today's greenhouse gases will be felt by future generations and we must pave the way to adapting to our changing climate today," she warned.

Under the new scheme, each Climate Change Partnership will be able to bid for funding allocations of up to £50,000 this year, £30,000 next year and £20,000 in 2010/11 to support a range of climate adaptation projects.

A spokeswoman for Defra said that projects were likely to cover a wide range of areas, including the development of regional action plans, efforts to raise community awareness of the need for climate change adaptation, and infrastructure improvements to tackle the increased risk of flooding and water shortages. "There are no prescribed projects as we want to give the power to local communities to work out what measures are required for them" she added.