Today we’ve published our Adaptation Reporting Power report as part of the fourth round of reporting (ARP4), aligning with the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment cycle and the five-yearly National Adaptation Programme. The Adaptation Reporting Power was established under the Climate Change Act 2008. It enables the UK Government to request reports from organisations to support understanding of infrastructure-related climate risks and progress in adapting to manage and mitigate them.
Our report provides a high-level overview of the climate change risks, impacts and barriers facing the main industry bodies we regulate, like Network Rail, National Highways, and High Speed 1 (HS1).It also looks at railway passenger and freight operating companies to understand what they are doing on climate change adaptation in line with their statutory duties.
Key highlights
As part of this work, we monitor safety and operational performance, as well as the strategies and actions that our regulated bodies take on climate adaptation. We also hold them to account, within our legislative powers, for the effective management of climate change adaptation.
For Network Rail, our work includes reviewing its plans and funding around weather resilience, holding it to account for the continued improvement of its regional Weather Resilience Climate Change Adaptation (WRCCA) plans, monitoring delivery of recommendations following the derailment of a train at Carmont in Aberdeenshire and undertaking proactive on-site safety inspections on priority topics such as extreme weather management.
For National Highways, we are advising government on the next road investment strategy (RIS), obtaining assurances that plans are in place for assets prone to adverse and extreme weather and ensuring that the company is delivering related performance commitments in areas such as drainage.
Learn more
If you want to learn more about our work in this area, read our report.