Former Special Representative for Climate Change (2006-2012) at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, John Ashton CBE has lambasted the UK government’s actions on climate change, claiming that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has reduced the size of its team working on climate change adaptation from 38 in 2009/10 to ‘just six people’ this year.

Speaking at a ‘Climate Change, Politics and Leadership in Britain’ event hosted by the Royal Society of Arts and Friends of the Earth (FoE) last night (16 May), Ashton referred to data obtained through a FoE Freedom of Information request that showed the amount of staff working on government’s Adapting to Climate Change programme stood at 38 in 2009/10, 32.5 in 2011/12, and 23.5 in 2012/13. However, the data reportedly showed that ‘just six’ staff are funded for the next financial year following the ‘summer 2013’ publication of the National Adaptation Programme (NAP).

Speaking in reference to the cut in staff at Defra, FoE's Executive Director Andy Atkins said: "After a year that has already brought flooding and other extreme weather to the UK, it's shocking that the department responsible for protecting us against the effects of climate change is to pare its staff to the bone."

However, speaking to Resource, a Defra spokesperson said that once the NAP is laid, the core work of that team will be complete and it will be in the hands of other groups to implement the actions recommended.

The spokesperson said: “Over the past few years, our team have been working on the National Adaption Programme and once that report is laid, it will mark the culmination of the work of the core adaptation policy team in Defra. So from that point onwards the responsibility for delivery of actions to safeguard against the future risks of climate change will rest with the respective lead government departments and agencies, businesses and stakeholders.

“After the report is laid, those people will not be made redundant, they will be assigned to other Defra policy areas.”

Defra has had been hit hard by government’s cost-cutting implementation programme, and will see its budget cut by £37 million by 2015, as part of government efforts to reduce Whitehall departments’ spending by two per cent.

Speaking after the Budget 2013, a Defra spokesperson said: "Defra's budget will be reduced by a further £37 million in total by April 2015. We are conducting a thorough review of priorities and will be looking to deliver operational efficiencies to ensure that front-line services are protected."

Government is ‘damaging Britain's influence on climate change’

In his speech, Ashton said that the coalition is failing on tackling climate change, and is instead creating “own goals" that are “damaging Britain's influence on climate change”.

The Treasury received particular criticism from Ashton, as he highlighted its move to block a proposed review on the impact of resource depletion and climate impacts on economy as a mark of government’s ineptitude in relation to adaptation.

Joining mounting calls for the government to include a decarbonisaton target in the upcoming Energy Bill, Ashton said it was “vital” a target be included: “I can't myself see how any MP who votes against the target will thereafter be able credibly to claim that they support an effective response to climate change.”

He further added that government should be looking to boost the low-carbon economy (currently growing at ‘nearly four per cent’) and “stop looking at low-carbon growth in the way the Spanish Inquisition looked at heretics”.

"Nothing that we accomplished [so far] could have been accomplished if we had been faltering at home as we are now. You cannot expect others to act as you ask, or even listen to what you say, if you are not doing yourself what you want them to do", he added.

Ashton went on to call on NGOs to help mobilise coalitions against climate change and provide people with solutions by filling "the gap that mainstream politics has vacated".

He reflected: “We think politics is broken. We have no confidence that it will rise to the challenge. We feel in the grip of forces that our leaders do not understand and cannot manage. So we feel anxious about the future, we don’t look forward to it.”

Read the full transcript of John Ashton’s speech or watch the video on Youtube.

Time to Adapt

John Ashton’s call to arms follows a report released by the European Environment Agency (EEA) which warned that it is ‘vital’ that European governments ‘act now’ to adapt to climate change.

It stated: ‘Climate change threatens the different regions of Europe in different ways, although all regions will experience climate change through a mix of gradual changes (such as increasing temperature or changes to biodiversity) and rapid ones (such as flooding).

‘Adaptation is a response to risks (and potential benefits) caused by climate variability and climate change in the context of continuing socio-economic development. it is vital that Europe acts now to implement a programme to reduce its vulnerability, and to integrate adaptation into all sectors in a way that takes into consideration the wider context of social change. This will help deliver a resilient society, supported by a sustainable, green economy.’

Though the report found that sixteen EEA member states (including the UK) have started to ‘take action’ to prepare for climate change and its impacts, half of the 32 member countries of the EEA still ‘lack plans to adapt to the effects of global warming’.