High and dry?: Preventing tomorrow's "flood ghettos"

The severe flooding of last November and December, as well as recent Storms Ciara and Dennis, have brought renewed focus on whether the Government is doing enough to protect and support high flood risk communities, both before and after flood events. For some hard hit places, for example in the Doncaster area, it has been the second or third major flood event they have experienced in two decades.

The UK needs to become a climate ready nation. We know that flooding is going to get worse with climate change. This means not only that we develop foresight on physical impacts and effective adaptation policies at a technical level, but also that we understand the human impact. Supporting flood-hit communities, rather than leaving them to shoulder crippling financial impacts alone, is a clear test of whether we can respond to climate change as a decent society.

Global green giant? A policy story

The world is beginning to wake up to the fact that global biodiversity is declining. Urgent global attention and action is required now. Climate change, overfishing, changes in land and sea use, and invasive alien species are all contributors to this. In the UK, we are witnessing the decline of species and their habitats.

The UK is a global leader on climate change, but now there is a need and opportunity to do the same for biodiversity - to become a global green giant on conservation. After many months of exploration, of consultation, and of thinking, this policy story provides a comprehensive set of recommendations to be used by the Government to bolster its agenda in making the UK a conservation nation.

A green and prosperous land?

In this edition of Centre Write, we tackle the sometimes thorny issue of climate change. The former Chair of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee Tim Yeo makes the Conservative case for low-carbon subsidies and Bright Blue’s Associate Fellow Ben Caldecott highlights the challenges to be faced in Paris in December. But environmental issues do not end with climate change.

On the wider environment, the Chairman of the Conservative Environment Network Ben Goldsmith makes the case for resource efficiency, while NFU President Meurig Raymond highlights sustainability and economic efficiency in British farming. Other contributors include Stanley Johnson, Michael Liebreich, Maf Smith, Mark Hoban, Suella Fernandes MP and many more.