The Committees report examines the actions that will be necessary to adapt to changes in flooding and water availability caused by climate change. There are a number of steps that the Government should take to reduce future flood risk, with a key consideration being the planning of new housing developments to avoid building on flood plains, where possible. Where this is necessary, developments should be designed to be as resilient as possible to flooding, utilising sustainable drainage systems and including areas such as parks in order to contain floodwater. Existing sewer systems will need upgrading and new systems must be built to cope with higher storm flows. Greater attention needs to be paid by the Government to the issue of water shortages due to drier summers, including considering alternative water pricing mechanisms to relate costs more directly to amount used, and ensuring building regulations pay greater attention to water efficiency. Water companies must also do more to reduce water leakages.

Connections between climate change and national security are receiving unprecedented attention from policymakers and analysts. In this report, Joshua W. Busby moves the discussion from broad assessments of the links between climate and security to a plan for action.

The U.S. National Climate Assessment identified a number of ways in which climate change is affecting, and is likely to affect, people, infrastructure, natural resources, and ecosystems. Those impacts, in turn, are increasingly having important current and potential future consequences for human health. There is a need to probe more deeply into how climate change impacts on the environment can create environmental stressors that, in turn, are having and/or have the potential to have significant impact on human health in a number of dimensions. In response to this need, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has initiated an interagency Scientific Assessment on the Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States. The Assessment is intended to inform public health authorities, other planning and policy entities, and the general public. Review of the Draft Interagency Report on the Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States evaluates the scientific basis, findings, and key messages of the USGCRP Draft Assessment. This report offers a number of overarching suggestions on how the USGCRP report authors can enhance their identification and assessment of the science and better communicate their conclusions to all of their target audiences. These recommendations this help the Assessment to play a significant role in continued efforts to examine and explore the impacts of climate change on human health.

This report highlights the commitments for the UK from the conclusions agreed in the 'Rio+20' Summit. It was regretted that the Deputy Prime Minister declined to give evidence. It was also regretted that the Prime Minister did not attend the Rio+20 Summit. His absence undermined the Government's attempts to demonstrate its commitment to the sustainable development agenda, not just internationally but also at home in the UK. The conclusions of the Summit itself disappointed many with a lack of concrete agreement on key areas. On the other hand, many welcomed the firm commitment to develop new Sustainable Development Goals. The development of the SDGs and the Post-2015 Development Goals should be carried out jointly. The Prime Minister should take advantage of his position as co-chair of that High Level Panel to continue to push for integration of sustainable development targets with poverty eradication and climate change targets. Permanent mechanisms should be established to continue engagement with a wider range of NGOs and businesses and examine the scope for introducing wider-ranging 'sustainability reporting' for the private sector. New Sustainable Development Indicators which will complement such Government reporting, will reflect our call for emissions Indicators to be on a consumption (rather than just a production) basis. The Summit included commitments on education and the Government should remind schools of the scope for addressing sustainable development in their learning plans. Alongside this report, the Committee's scrutiny of the Government's progress in embedding sustainable development in its own policies and programmes is also being published (HC 202, session 2013-14, ISBN 9780215058911)

Human beings and industrial-based society are changing the composition of our planet's atmosphere and causing it to warm at an unnatural and oftentimes astonishing rate. Much of that warmth is being absorbed by water which is causing an acceleration in the rate and manner in which water moves through the global hydrological cycle. A warmer atmosphere carries more water vapor which means as temperatures continue to rise storms will be more intense, last longer and cause more damage to our towns, cities and vital infrastructure. On the other side of the hydro-climate coin, we can also expect deeper, more persistent and damaging droughts throughout the world resulting in dramatic losses, difficult economic outcomes and fundamental alterations to landscape. This highly considered, accessible and readable book explains how changes in the water cycle have already begun to affect how we think about and value water security and climate stability and what we can do to ensure a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren.

There is a great deal of misunderstanding surrounding the subject of climate change, often leading to profound confusion regarding its potential impacts on natural resource systems and public well-being. Well-intentioned but misguided attempts by the media to call attention to the prospect of climate change have left much of the public with the impression that the Earth's climate system is either poised at the brink of cataclysmic change or that global climate change is a myth that they can safely ignore. Neither of those extreme views provides useful guidance to anyone attempting to make informed decisions about the management of climate-sensitive resources. In this report, the research team summarized the best available scientific evidence on climate change, including both natural changes and changes that may be caused by human activities. In particular, this primer focused on what is known about the implications of climate change for the water cycle and the availability and quality of water resources. This report is available as a pay-per-view item only.