The government’s plans for adapting the UK to the effects of climate change have been labelled “deeply disappointing” by critics.
Ministers have said that the schemes laid out in the 140-page report will help boost the UK’s resilience to extreme weather and outline how to protect people, homes and businesses from events such as heatwaves, droughts and floods.
But critics, among them Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, have said that the plans “really lack in ambition”.
Another policy expert told Sky News that the proposals were “a bit more like a government spinning its wheels rather than hitting the accelerator”.
The latest National Adaptation Programme – known as NAP3 – had been expected to be published on Tuesday. But it was released on Monday following a leak to The Guardian newspaper.
The 140-page document offers a five-year plan that ministers said would boost resilience and help protect people from the damaging impacts of climate change.
The government strategy says all the right things.
It is calling for the right kind of strategies and programmes – new research for adaptation, spending money on getting local authorities talking to one another, health alert systems.
But what analysis looking through the details of the government’s plan today are already saying is that a lot of these things have already been announced, and that it also lacks the urgency in clear timetabled deadlines that we need to meet.
A bit more like a government spinning its wheels rather than hitting the accelerator, one policy expert said to me, which is what we need given the speed of the climate change that is coming to us.
We are at 1.5C of warming right now, we are heading towards 2C plus.
What we don’t invest and deal with now and in the not too distant future, we are just passing on much bigger costs, and much more damage, to the next government, future governments and society.
Environment Secretary Therese Coffey, in a foreword to the report, said the programme would be a “step change in our approach to managing the risks of climate change, moving us from planning to action”.
The report highlighted a pilot for a dedicated climate data tool to help councils plan and adapt to local challenges.
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According to the document, the Department for Education will carry out annual climate risk assessments from this year to “identify the highest-risk settings and provide guidance on how to reduce the risk”.
The department will also “prioritise nature-based solutions” to issues such as flooding and overheating in education settings by 2025, including rain garden drainage systems and natural shading for outdoor spaces.
According to the plan, the Ministry of Justice will research the impact of climate change on staff and prisoner behaviour, while Defra will investigate local nature recovery strategies.
Ms Lucas, the former leader of the Green Party, said many of the plans in the documents were “pre-announced about two years ago” and are “being recycled now.”
“We’ve got the government talking about doing research to work out why and how buildings overheat instead of actually putting in place the measures to address it,” she told Channel 4 News.
Emma Howard Boyd, chair of the London Climate Resilience Review, said the programme “should be a wake-up call and yet it seems they are taking a nap”.
“NAP3 won’t convince anyone that we are ready and that is a dangerous, missed opportunity,” she said.
Linda Taylor, environment spokeswoman for the Local Government Association, said some aspects were positive but warned that the plan “does not deliver the overall funding and support necessary to enable urgent acceleration of local adaptation action”.
The man who served 14 years in jail for the murder of schoolboy Jimmy Mizen has been recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions.
It follows reporting in The Sun newspaper that Jake Fahri, 35, was a drill rapper releasing music under the name TEN, who conceals his identity with a balaclava, and was played on BBC 1Xtra.
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with Jimmy Mizen’s family who deserve better than to see their son’s murderer shamelessly boasting about his violent crime.”
Jimmy’s father Barry told Sky News: “We’re not gloating or anything, in a way it’s quite sad.”
His son bled to death after Fahri threw an oven dish at him in a south London bakery on 10 May 2008.
The dish shattered on his chin and severed an artery in the schoolboy’s neck.
Fahri was 19 when he was given a life sentence in 2009 with a minimum term of 14 years and was released on licence in June 2023.
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His music was played on BBC 1Xtra less than 18 months later, the Sun reported, adding that DJ Theo Johnson named him an “up-and-coming star”.
Jimmy’s father earlier said he and his wife Margaret were “stunned into silence” when they were told about Fahri’s music, which often features violent themes.
In one song, which appears to reference Jimmy’s death, he raps about “sharpening” a blade.
“Judge took a look at me, before the trial even started he already knows he’s gonna throw the book at me,” the lyrics say.
Another track includes the lines: “See a man’s soul fly from his eyes and his breath gone… I wanted more, it made it less wrong. Seeing blood spilled same floor he was left on.”
The BBC has said the artist’s tracks do not feature on any BBC playlists, and that a track which appeared to reference Jimmy’s death had never been played on its channels.
A spokesman for the broadcaster added there were “no further plans to play his music”, adding: “We were not aware of his background and we in no way condone his actions.”
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “All offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions. As this case shows, we will recall them to prison if they break the rules.”
Jimmy’s parents founded the Mizen Foundation after their son’s death. The charity helps young people in London who are escaping violence.
Mr Mizen said: “It appears that if he’s been recalled to prison, he must’ve breached his licence conditions
The man suspected of abducting Madeleine McCann won’t face any charges in the foreseeable future, a prosecutor has told Sky News.
German drifter Christian B, who cannot be fully identified under his country’s privacy law, is expected to be freed from an unrelated jail sentence this year while police in three countries continue to search for evidence against him.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “There is currently no prospect of an indictment in the Maddie case.
“As things stand, the accused Christian B’s imprisonment will end in early September.”
Madeleine, aged three, was asleep with her younger twin siblings in the family’s Portuguese rented holiday apartment before mother Kate discovered her missing at around 10pm on 3 May, 2007.
Her parents were dining nearby on the complex with friends and taking turns to check on all their sleeping children every half an hour.
Madeleine’s disappearance has become the world’s most mysterious missing child case.
Philipp Marquort, one of Christian B’s defence lawyers, welcomed the prosecutor’s pessimism about bringing charges.
He said: “This confirms the suspicions that we have repeatedly expressed, namely that there is no reliable evidence against our client.
“We regret that we have not yet been granted access to the investigation files. We have not yet been able to effectively counter the public prejudice arising from statements made by the prosecutor’s office.”
Christian B, 47, is in jail and coming to the end of his sentence for the rape of an elderly American woman in Praia da Luz, the Portuguese resort where Madeleine disappeared.
In October, he was acquitted on a series of rape and indecent assault charges after a non-jury trial in Germany, in which several references were made to his status as the main suspect in the Madeleine case.
The prosecutor said he was awaiting the court’s written judgment before launching an appeal against the acquittal. He believes the trial judges were biased against the prosecution.
If successful, he could apply for a new arrest warrant for Christian B to keep him in custody until a retrial with new judges.
He said: “We hope that the Federal Court of Justice will decide before the end of the accused’s imprisonment. If the Federal Court follows our legal opinion, we could apply for a new arrest warrant for the accused’s offences, so that the accused would then remain in custody beyond September 2025.
Mr Marquort said the defence team would oppose the prosecution’s appeal against the acquittal.
Prosecutor Mr Wolters has said in the past that he believes Madeleine is dead and that Christian B was responsible for her death. The suspect denies any involvement.
The case against Christian B is purely circumstantial; he’s alleged to have confessed to a friend that he abducted Madeleine, he has convictions for sex crimes against children, he was living in the area at the time, his mobile phone was close by when the young girl vanished and he re-registered one of his vehicles the next day.
The prosecutor won’t say what evidence he has to convince him Madeleine is dead, but he admitted he is still trying to find forensic evidence to link Christian B to the girl.
Jim Gamble, former head of the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre, said he had expected the prosecutor to charge Christian B soon.
“He’s implied the whole way through that he has something more than the public are aware of,” he said.
“He’s made fairly definitive statements about whether Madeleine is alive or dead so you would expect their strategy to have been to charge him sooner rather than later.
“From what he’s said today I wonder if we’re witnessing the re-positioning of something to manage the disappointment that’ll come.”
Mr Wolters, who is based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, is investigating the case with the help of Portuguese police and detectives from Scotland Yard.
An investigation, led by the Surrey and Sussex Police Major Crime Team, is under way and inquiries remain ongoing, police said.
Senior Investigating Officer DCI Kimball Edey said specialist officers “are working around the clock to gather as much information as possible,” and that the force’s “thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims at this unbelievably difficult time”.