Reducing the impact of extreme weather events
Two named storms are expected to hit the UK from Wednesday (16th February) afternoon onwards, with the Met Office issuing amber and yellow warnings for both.
“Significant disruption is possible from both Storm Dudley and Storm Eunice with strong winds one of the main themes of the current forecast,” said the Met Office in a statement.
Scotland is expected to take the brunt of Storm Dudley before it moves down the length of the UK. As a result, John Swinney, Deputy First Minister, has chaired a meeting of the Scottish Government’s Resilience Room in preparation.
“The Scottish Government is in close contact with local authorities and emergency and essential services to ensure people in the affected areas receive the latest information, advice and support where needed,” said Mr Swinney.
Despite this, concerns have been raised in the wake of Storm Arwen last November, which caused widespread power outages and left many without hot water or working phone lines for days. The Scottish LibDems’ rural affairs spokesperson, Beatrice Wishart, told The National that “we are facing a constant run of storms and communities haven’t been prepared for it.” Wishart also added that the party had proposed a Climate Emergency Communities Fund, which would upgrade businesses and infrastructure to cope with effects of a changing climate.
The cost of these extreme weather events is known, with the European Environment Agency recently releasing a report which finds the total economic loss from weather- and climate-related events between 1980-2020 amounted to EUR450-520bn across the 32 EEA countries. “Meteorological events and hydrological events each represented between 34% and 44% of total losses.” The report also notes that only between 25-33% (depending on the source) of the total economic losses were insured.
To build resilience to this, the EU has set out a goal to “adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change and become climate resilient by 2050”. The impact of Storm Dudley and Storm Eunice remains to be seen but, with climate change and the potential for more extreme weather events on the horizon, it is more important than ever that goals such as this are actioned to build resilience and reduce their economic and societal impact.
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Kieran Matthews
Content Creator, The BCI
